King Cucumber

Seed Packet: Sumter

Since when are cucumbers worth writing home about? Simple answer: When you stumble over and discover a cucumber variety that is out of this world special. It's when you make a discovery like this, the process of kicking yourself commences. Kicking yourself as in: Why didn't I plant this years ago?

I will admit that I had the chance. This special variety of cucumber arrived a decade ago as a "toss away." It's one of those special rewards that gardeners receive from seed houses when an order for $20 worth of seed product is placed. In this case, the Sumter Cucumber seeds arrived as a "freebie" from an outfit called Seeds of Change. This is during a time in recent history when Seeds of Change was in business. Sadly, it isn't any longer.

The name still exists. It was purchased by another seed outfit after the Seeds of Change business folded. The name and brand is now held by an outfit called Green Garden Products located in Norton, Massachusetts. It's the same outfit that owns Ferry Morse Home Gardening, Livingston Seed, McKenzie Seed and others. It's also the same firm responsible for stocking some stores with 25-cent seed packets, a bargain buy that I honestly loved.

Sprouting Sumter Seeds

This packet of Sumter Cucumber seeds had done nothing but gather dust in a garage for ten years. When I discovered some extra room in last year's garden that would be perfect for seed planting efforts, my first thought was why not? I wasn't expecting much. Packets containing seeds that are ten years old can often be disappointing. Some seeds absolutely refuse to sprout after gathering dust for that long a time.

Imagine my surprise then when not only every seed sprouted, but these Sumter cucumber vines began to cover every square inch of space that I set aside for it. Then it began to grow into other areas. The vines managed to grow over and conquer nearby bush bean plants. They also grew right into and over large basil plants. The Sumter vines even latched onto six-foot tall tomato plants and grew right up and over them like nobody's business. The only thing that slowed the Sumter down was the onset of winter.

By this time I had discovered that the Sumter was actually a variety of pickling cucumber. Let me rephrase that statement: The Sumter was a very, very, very, very productive form of pickling cucumber. A free seed packet that contained 25-seeds left me with more cucumbers that I knew what to do with. So, I started to surprise my neighbors with bags of them. SURPRISE!

Late Season Cucumber Patch

The only thing that I failed to do was to find someone, ANYONE, in the local area that liked to create and can pickled cucumbers as a home canning project. By the time I really needed to discover a group like this, it was already too late. I won't make that mistake this year. If you are reading this and you want cucumbers in late July for a home-canning project, drop me a note. They're free. Pick all you want. Then, do me a favor and pick even more.

The Sumter also did double-duty as fresh cucumber slices and chunks in multiple summer salads. Every night, it seemed, featured large bowls of heirloom tomatoes, sliced Sumter cucumbers and loads of basil to give it that spicy kick. The Sumter was, in a word, outstanding. No hint of bitterness. Easy to peel. Easy to chop. Easy to prepare. I had no complaints. I still don't.

Sumter Cucumber Bounty

I simply could not let this variety get away from me. So, like any gardener who literally stumbles over something really good, I allowed a few of these cucumbers to get fat and yellow with seeds. At the end of the season I sliced each one open and saved seed through a simple fermentation process. The end result was enough saved seed for ten gardens. I'm still giving out seeds to anyone who wants them.

The saved seeds that I planted earlier this spring, meanwhile, are putting on the same type of show that the ten-year old packet of Sumter seeds did last year. They all sprouted. Some were planted earlier than others, but they are all doing well. Which means one big load of cucumbers later this summer.

Late to the Summer Garden Party!

Sugar Pea Pod Vines

I'm late! Late to the Summer Garden Extravaganza. That picture to your right is the reason WHY I'm so late to the summer party this year. This, and two other sad plants that are not pictured, are all that remains from my fall garden planting efforts. My fall garden doesn't normally look quite this sad, but California's epic amount of rain this winter drowned just about everything EXCEPT what you see pictured to the right.

This spot happens to be the highest spot in the backyard garden. Not pictured is the rest of the garden. Why not? Because for much of the winter that section of the yard was under several inches of water. That's what happens when an area that had not see much rainfall in two or three years suddenly receives TWICE the amount that normally falls in any given year.

That was the winter we needed in Northern California. Unfortunately, a lot of good comes with a little bit of bad. Two to three inches of rain can be very good for fall and winter gardening efforts. Thirty inches of rain is a different story entirely. You needed a rowboat to pay a visit to some areas of the garden this past winter. I could only watch as the fall and winter greens drowned following one epic storm after another.

Lake Northern California!

BUT, there was one bright spot. It was that high section of garden that I'd set aside for the sugar pea pod plants that I'd received from a gardening friend. 12-of those starter plants went into one cirle. 12-others went into another. The plants in the lowest section of the yard, like many other fall garden plants, drowned after the backyard turned into a lake. But the other 12 did just fine.

The unusual winter weather not only covered some sections of the garden completely, it also stunted the growing efforts of those plants that remained above water. So, when the time came to start prepping the garden for spring and summer exploits, the sugar pod pea plants that survived the lake-like conditions were just starting to flower.

Spring Peas

I had a choice. Pull the plants out and declare the fall and winter season to be an entire bust, or wait. I chose to wait. While other gardeners were prepping garden areas for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other summer efforts, I patiently waited for those blooms on the sugar pod pea plants to turn into garden peas. That patience would be rewarded.

The wait resulted in a weight of 1.1 lbs. of sugar pea pods. That's enough pea pods to fill up a collander. Which is a lot of peas. The vast majority of those were added to some sliced mushrooms and put into a soup creation which resulted in a lot of leftovers. I will be eating the last of that soup for lunch today, which will put a finishing wrap on the rain-challenged fall and spring gardening efforts.

The sugar pea pod harvest did finally allow for some summer garden prep. In fact, that prep started the moment that the pea harvest ended and the plants were removed. But, I will admit, I'm a solid month behind the efforts of many others. The tomato plants are already beginning to produce pea-sized tomatoes, but there will be no "early harvest" this summer. If I get a cherry tomato to ripen up by the 4th of July holiday I'll consider myself lucky.

Spring Pea Harvest

Fortunately, I get to benefit from a special climate called "California Weather." As unpredictable as it has been this year, you can still count on a long summer growing season out west. So, even if you are like me, a month behind schedule, it doesn't matter for us California types. The garden planted in late May will eventually catch up with those gardens planted in late April. When the month of September rolls around, you won't be able to tell the two apart.

The real benefit, however, is all that water stored behind our massive Northern and Southern California reservoirs. Plus, a massive snowpack that is slowly melting in the Sierra Nevada. It's a snowpack that is so very large that all of it may not melt. Our fantastically warm summers won't be warm enough or last long enough to melt all of that water trapped in the high country.

Which is fine by me. That's irrigation water for backyard vegetable gardening efforts!

Valentine's Day!

Garden Fresh Chow Mein

The best Valentine's Day gift is not chocolate. This may be depressing news to a friend who confided in a whisper to me last weekend that it was her favorite gift. I didn't want to burst her bubble. My favorite Valentine's Day gift is pictured to the immediate right. Can you spot it?

If that looks like a dish of homemade chow mein, points to you. That's exactly what it is. But that particular dish isn't the favored gift. It's what's in that dish. Look closely. Can you spot it? That dish contains two-three elements from my spring and summer gardening exploits. It's the garden that keeps on giving. Even in the dead of winter as I plan out the next spring and summer garden efforts, the 2022 garden is still paying off.

Dixondale Farms Onions

That garden gift is one of three vegetable packs that I prepared at the close of last summer's gardening efforts. Those packs include two chopped onions, courtsey of Dixondale Farms, the largest grower of onion plants in the USA. The packs also include anywhere from two-to-four chopped bell peppers and one or two chopped jalapeño peppers (seeds included), to give the finished creation a little kick. The packs also include the leaves produced by a prolific summer basil plant.

The creation of these winter packs is a fairly simple operation, but it does require a bit of time in the kitchen. This is where the process starts. The largest onions, which were hung to dry on a fence after a July harvest, are selected. So are the largest peppers. By late August and September, these bell peppers have taken on a pleasing red, orange or yellow hue. The jalapeño peppers are a bright red at this point in the summer garden season and are as spicy (hot) as they are going to get.

Summer Garden Peppers

Jalapeños are not the hottest peppers you can grow in the garden. But they are the best tasting in my humble opinion. The hotter peppers, which all grow well in this California climate, tend to be a tad bitter. This is all personal opinion, of course. There are hot pepper afficiandos who love the taste and jolt that comes from biting into a freshly harvested Ghost, Scorpion or Habanero flamethrower. That's just never been my style. To each his own.

Jalapeño peppers also tend to be the most prolific and easy to grow, which means I can hand out scads of them to neighbors and friends who love the jolt of summer garden heat. There were a lot to give away this past summer, thanks to the garden patrol efforts of a legendary kitten known as "The Mango." I've come to discover that the kitten I adopted from the Bradshaw Animal Shelter in Sacramento County last May not only chased a voracious army of rats out of my garden this past summer, he apparently did a lot more. Neighbors have confided in me that "The Mango" took this hunt into other yards with vegetable gardens, fruit trees, or both.

The Chop!

I did not receive any complaints about these visits. The neighbors loved these well-timed events. The army of rats that once feasted on these summer gardens did not. The end result was a string of successful garden efforts in every yard "The Mango" patrolled.

A food processor aided with the end-of-season chopping effort. The end result went into one-quart bags that went straight into the freezer. I have used two of these bags so far. I will most likely use the third at some point later this month or in March. The bagged peppers, hot peppers, onions and basil are perfect for stir fry dishes, soups, chili or any other dish complimented by summer gardening efforts. The only drawback will come when I finish off the last bag and wish I'd created a fourth or fifth chopped summer garden effort.

Finished Freezer Pack

Three is never enough.

There is a down side to preparing fresh summer vegetables that are chopped and frozen for future use. You do lose that fabulous crunch. But that signature smell of a summer vegetable garden is never too far away. Which is a nice thing to have in the kitchen on a cold and wet winter day.