WEBVTT - Savor Classics: Cucumbers 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.560 Hello, and welcome to Saber Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:14.760 And I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we have a classic 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:16.720 for you about cucumbers. 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.720 Yes, Yes, and we did this one a little bit ago. 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.640 Yes. This was originally published in June of twenty eighteen. 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:31.160 Yes. And before I ask you if there was any 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:33.120 reason it was on your mind, I have to say 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:35.879 I often think of one thing when I think of 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:40.519 this episode, and it's that our super producer Dylan Fagan 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:47.160 really does not enjoy cucumbers, and due to circumstances, as 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:53.280 it happens, he's the one editing this classic this week, 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.120 as other super producer Andrew is having a nice vacation hopefully. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:06.760 And I when I saw this, I laugh, I laughed loud. Lord. 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.880 I picked it before Dylan, before I knew Dylan was 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:12.440 signed on. 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:14.760 I'm sorry, Dylan, I'm sorry. 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.280 If it makes you feel better. They make me so gassy, 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:21.759 so I cannot enjoy them either. 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.000 Oh, I love them. I've been I've been making bunch 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:29.480 on caw yeah, and I've been using them in a 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.280 I've been making spring rolls a lot lately. 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:37.400 Oh yeah, they taste lovely my guts cannot handle them. 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:42.120 That's a real shame. It is. So you both are cocktails. 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.720 Oh I'm mad about it. Yeah, that's true. You're both 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:52.400 in two different versions of a cucumber purgatory. Almost. You 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.440 can't enjoy them because of your guts. Dylan can't enjoy 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:57.880 them because he does not like them. 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:03.800 Yeah yeah, well, uh, what a lovely human to be 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:05.640 stuck in a cucumber purgatory. 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:10.519 Yes, yes, indeed, But uh, they. 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.560 Were on my mind because you know, like we're getting 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:18.040 into the warm months where like a nice refreshing cucumber, 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.400 if you enjoy that sort of thing, would be so nice. 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:24.359 And also like we are counting down to people who 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:28.560 grow cucumbers having a lot of cucumbers on their hands. 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:34.520 Oh that's true, and that means like fresh pickles. Oh 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.800 my rash. My mom makes this like summer relish with cucumbers. 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.720 Oh yeah, you're right. 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:47.320 Friend of the show, Ramsey makes beautiful homemade homemade pickles. 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.880 Yeah they are so good. Wow. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:56.080 Well, well, at least one of us here daydreams about cucumbers. 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.400 I suppose we should let former Annie and Lauren take 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:08.320 it away. 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:13.359 Hello, I'm welcome to foodstuff I'm Annie Reach. 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.440 And I'm more in vocal bomb, and today we're talking 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:17.880 about another thing I shouldn't really eat. 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.320 Yes, we're making our bad habit of it's it's okay. 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:23.040 The list is long. 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.920 We're talking about cucumbers. Cucumbers and not pickles. 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.720 Not no, not pickles. Oh my goodness. We have a 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:31.880 pickle guest WETI works. 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.800 Yes, and so a pickle episode is forthcoming, absolutely, but 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.200 it is not this one, not today. No, today is 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.280 the cucumber. And I wanted to include a quote, a 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.000 quote of the episode right at the top from Samuel Johnson. 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.640 A cucumber should be well sliced and dressed with pepper 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.400 and vinegar, then thrown out. That's good for nothing. 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.120 Dang right, that is that is some strong words about 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.840 a cucumber. You know, I don't feel that strongly about cucumber, 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:00.520 and I. 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:02.840 Know I don't either, And I have to say I 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.080 am someone who does have a lot of like theatrics 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:09.240 in me and a lot of enemies as you mind. 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:13.920 Be sure, Yeah, that's a lot even for me, like 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.240 to put something, make a dish out of it and 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.800 just be like so spiteful. Aha, I'm gonna throw you 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:19.960 out at the end of this. 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.480 It's a lot, it is. But you know, I'm sure 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:25.679 Sherry had his reasons. 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.320 He did, and we're gonna talk about them later. They're 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:32.240 pretty excellent. Nevertheless, we're gonna we're gonna unpack all of 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.920 that stuff. Yeah, starting with the cucumber. What is it. 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.440 Well, cucumbers are the fruit of a flowering vine. And yes, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.600 they're technically a fruit, not a vegetable, super technically or botanically. Rather, 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.480 they are a berry. But yeah, there are many different kinds. 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:52.200 But your basic cucumber is oblong, with a relatively thin, bitter, 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.720 dark green skin, encasing like very pale green flesh, which 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:58.960 is in turn encasing just a whole bunch of seeds. 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:01.800 The flesh is watery and crunchy, and the seeds are 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.360 small and kind of soft and edible, and the whole 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.279 thing tastes fresh and green and cool and a little 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:08.320 bit savory or bitter. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:09.440 Yeah, you're both. 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:14.880 The Latin name is Cecumus sativus, and they're fairly closely 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.680 related to melons, pumpkins, cords, and squash. 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.240 Yes, and there are many, many, many types of cucumbers, 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.920 oh yeah, including not actually including the scored in cucumber. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:28.640 I wanted to talk about it. I want to know 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.520 what it is, but it's it's not a cucumber, so 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:32.360 not within the purview of this episode. 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.240 It's like vaguely related. It looks sort of like a cucumber. 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:40.120 Does it scort you when when it's ripe it injects 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.840 its seeds? I mean, it's it's a vegetable, but when 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.599 it gets very ripe, it just ejects its seeds like violently. 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.480 So yeah, I. 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:52.640 Am going to have a good laugh about that later. 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.159 I you look like you're having a good laugh about that. 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.920 Right now, I'm struggling to contain myself the jokes I 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.599 want to make. Oh yeah, but we must move on. 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.560 We yes, we must, sally forth, we must. 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.360 There are yes, many many types of cucumber, from the 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.800 pickling cucumber like Curby or Liberty, to the Japanese and 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:13.160 Mediterranean varieties. 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.800 Their skins range from smooth to bumpy to outright spiky, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.000 and can be yellow to green, to striped or speckled 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.400 with both, and can be either completely edible or unpleasantly 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.480 bitter and fibrous. On average, they can range from two 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:30.320 to forty inches that's about five to one hundred centimeters 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.160 in length, and weigh anything from two ounces to nine pounds. 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:39.640 Nine pounds that's like fifty grams to four kilos. Wo. Yeah. 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.400 English cucumbers can grow up to two feet long a 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.840 little underimeter and are seedless and therefore sometimes marketed as burpless. 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:51.400 Apparently the seeds give some people. Guess we'll touch on 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:52.280 that a little bit late. 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:53.880 Absolutely m hm. 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.039 Cucumbers typically are categorized in one of two ways, slicing 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.480 or pickling. Slicing cucumber are eaten straight from the garden 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.600 or wherever you get your cucumbers from, and generally have smooth, 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.080 spine free skin and can range in length from four 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:10.400 to twelve inches. Pickling cucumbers, on the other hand, are smaller, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:12.920 like one to five inches, and their skin is bumpier 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:13.960 and or spinier. 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.720 Oh. One thing in addition to squirting cucumbers that is 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.200 not technically a type of cucumber is a gurkin. Oh really, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.480 and okay, this is about to get what I consider 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:29.920 completely unnecessarily complicated. Botanically speaking, Gurkins are other fruits of 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.680 viny plants in the Cucurba tasi family, the same as cucumber, 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:38.520 and they resemble cucumbers in flavor or appearance, for example, 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:42.200 the cucumus and guria, the West Indian gurkin, and the 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:49.800 mellow Thria scabra, the Mexican sour girkin. That's botanically. Culturally speaking, 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.200 gurkin is either a botanical girkin that has been pickled, 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:57.280 or a small pickled cucumber of any kind. Some people 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.240 just pickle a cucumber and call it a girkin because 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.720 they resemble at things that are gurkins, and gurkins resemble 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:03.640 cucumbers anyway. 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.760 So I think that's why I've been confused. 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:13.280 I it's confusing, It really is, it really is. So 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:15.120 that's fine, right. 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.840 Etymology wise, the origins of the name is fairly straightforward, 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.920 from the Latin cucumberan. Then the old French maybe or 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:28.040 maybe not, took that and turned it into cucumbra, and 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.960 then that jumped to English because it's pretty close cucumbra. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.720 Or perhaps it straight up came from y Cliff's first 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.240 English translation of the Bible, in which the cucumber gets 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:39.480 name checked more than once, huh. Or it could have 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:44.320 been both, but generally that's a that's a simpler story 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:45.520 than we're normally telling. 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:50.520 Oh, absolutely right. Yes, cucumbers are an annual plant, meaning 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:52.840 that you have to plant them anew each growing season 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.520 from seeds or transplants, and they will grow flour fruit 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:01.200 and then die off. Yeah. Grow either bush like along 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.040 the ground or can be trained up trellises or other 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:08.800 standing objects, fences, whatever you want. And the plants generally 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.360 have both male and female flowers, but some have been 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:13.160 cultivated to have a majority of one or the other. 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.240 Either way, they don't self pollinate or wind pollinate because 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.480 they're pretty sticky. You need insects, probably honeybees to do 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.200 that for you, Our good old friend, the honeybe I know. 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:27.079 In big agriculture, cucumbers are harvested mechanically, like the whole 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.560 plant is just pulled up and sent for sorting. They're 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:33.679 fairly delicate, and it's considered best to hand pluck them 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:37.160 from their vines. The ones with thin skins come shrink 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.040 wrapped in order to prevent water loss along the way, 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.160 which is why if you've seen an English cucumber shrink wrapped, Oh, 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:45.640 there you go. They don't want it to otherwise it 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.280 would dehydrate like a sponge. 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:53.000 Tidal idea, the thin skinned cucumber. Ooh, all right, I 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.400 like it. This is part of my process, everybody. If 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.680 we're looking at nutrition, I've often heard of cucumber referred 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.600 to as a quote negative calorie food, meaning the calories 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:05.960 you expend on digesting it are more than the calories 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:09.480 you get from eating it. Yeah, probably not, didn't find 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.760 anything to back it up, but a half cup will 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.079 run you about eight calories and they are ninety five 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:15.240 ninety six percent water. 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.200 Side note here, there are no scientifically rigorous studies that 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:24.160 prove that negative calorie foods are an actual thing. I mean, like, 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.600 throughout the day, about five to ten percent of your 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:31.720 energy goes into digesting foods. But eating negative calori foods 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:35.440 isn't going to give you enough nutrients to like live on, right, 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.320 So I mean, you know, if you like them, then 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.520 eat them, and we could all use more vegetables and 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.400 fibers things in our diets. But please, please please ignore 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:49.360 people who try to sell you on like negative calorie eating. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.680 that's I mean, if you're going to go negative calorie, 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.400 that should be done through a combination of diet and exercise. 0:10:54.800 --> 0:11:00.000 Don't just do it through food. No, probably consult a doctor. 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:06.520 Yes, always. We are not medical professionals. Nope, nope, nope. 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.719 But whatever the case, they are healthy. Yeah. They have 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:15.600 potassium and vitamins AB six C and K fall eight, magnesium, siamine, phosphorus, copper, 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.120 and manganese. I did read somewhere that it was kind 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:22.880 of like a judgy It was a weird judgy statement, 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.679 like the cucumber is healthy, but it's not that healthy. 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:29.520 It's like, okay. It was strange in the context of 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:31.120 what it was written in because it wasn't just like 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:35.280 some comment that nobody yeah, like no blowjo or whatever 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.520 made It was in an article about cucumbers. I thought 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:43.320 it was interesting. In twenty ten, we produced fifty seven 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.800 point five million tons of cucumber around the world. As 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.360 of two thousand and five, China accounted for sixty percent 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.760 of that, followed by Turkey, Russia, Iran, and the US 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:57.400 the largest cucumber well, last I checked, I'm not regularly 0:11:57.480 --> 0:11:59.959 checking these things. The last I checked, it was one 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.120 hundred and sixty four pounds or what are about seventy 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:07.079 four kilos and sixty seven inches long or one hundred 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.359 and seventy centimeters. 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:12.040 That that cucumber is like way bigger than me. 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.760 Oh, that's a weird thought. That's a weird. 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:21.359 Thought, like I could comfortably fit inside that cucumber. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:26.000 Oh, I know, you'd be so cool, cool as a cucumber. Perhaps, 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.000 I keep thinking of pickle Rick. Oh yeah, but if 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:33.080 he would, if he had been that size, he would 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:34.080 be like a human size. 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.720 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's this is going to come back later. 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.520 Oh absolutely, absolutely right. 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.880 Okay, but Rick, aside for the current moment or the 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.000 current moment, we're going to get into the history of 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:46.920 the cucumber. But first we're going to get into a 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:48.880 quick word from our sponsor. 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.160 Back, thank you sponsor. The cucumber got its start in 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.720 ancient Asia, probably around India and the Himalayas, where it 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.240 had been cultivated for at least three thousand years. Early 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:16.600 cucumbers produced more cucurbitisens than most of our modern varieties. 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:21.240 And this is a bitter compound that the cucumber makes 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.360 to keep those pested away. Yeah. 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:25.160 Yeah, it doesn't taste good, taste like toxic. 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.760 Stay back, stay back, don't eat me. Please more on that. Yes, 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.800 cucumber's got to mention in the legend of Gilgamesh, and 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:35.320 was on the product list of the ancient er in 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.599 the Sumea region of Mesopotamia. As we said at the 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.920 top of the show, the Bible brings up the cucumber 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.320 as one of the foods freely available to the slaves 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.480 in Egypt. Quote. We remember the fish which we did 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.360 eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.120 the leaks, and the onions and the garlic. There are 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.480 even stories of making a weak liqueur drink from cucumber 0:13:57.600 --> 0:13:59.760 in the early days by cutting a hole in the fruit, 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.160 stirring up the insides until they were all liquidy, plugging 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.559 up the hole, and then bearing the cucumber for a 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.240 couple of days. I mean, if anybody wants to give 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:10.440 it a shot, let us know how I go. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:12.160 Oh goodness, don't take our advice. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:17.319 No never. According to some sources, the peoples of southeastern 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.040 Europe in areas like Turkey and Bulgaria are producing cumber 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.120 around the same time as well. Whatever the case, from India, 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.080 the cucumber made the journey most likely with the Romans 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.440 to Europe. Ancient Romans were big fans of the crop 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:34.280 our old pal Pliny the Elder observed that they were 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:38.480 a popular choice for Emperor Tiberius, who was never without them. 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:41.520 He loved them so much that they were grown throughout 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.960 the year using artificial methods similar to a greenhouse, to 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.080 make sure that he was never ever minus a cucumber. 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:50.640 If he wanted a cucumber, he could get his hands 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:54.080 on one. Roman gardeners would plant them in wooden carts 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.040 so they could be wheeled out in the sun during 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.960 the day and moved inside during the cold winter months. 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:03.320 They were kept in frames or cucumber houses. They had 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.720 pineapple houses, cucumber houses. 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.000 Yeah, I mean they're pretty delicate, like they do best 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:12.000 in like kind of warm temperatures. But if they drop 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.640 blow like fifty, they're ruined. If they go too high, 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:16.280 they're ruined. 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:22.680 My little heart is like poor cucumbers, poor delicate cucumbers. 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.680 Plenty of descriptions of these cucumbers more closely resemble that 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.040 of wild cucumbers than what we cultivate these days. They 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.360 were quite small, and of course they were used for 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:38.840 medicinal purposes, everything from scorpion bites to improved eyesight to 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:44.160 the medicinally tangential I guess scaring away of mice. Okay, yeah, 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:48.360 women wanting to get pregnant would wear them strung about 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:51.080 their waist. I got a very big laugh out of 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.680 that at my desk. Some midwives would carry them too, 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:56.920 and they would toss the cucumber once the child in 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:01.240 question was born. Oh okay, I'm kind of curious. How 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.440 many people do you think we're getting stung by scorpions 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.760 right in this time, because it's come up more than once. 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.400 That a food is good for like scorpions stings. 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:12.120 Yeah, or snake bites. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.280 Oh, so I think they're just more serious than than 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:14.800 they are now. 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:19.680 Like I suppose that's true. I mean a scorpion sting hurts. 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:20.720 Or some of them are deadly. 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:26.200 I think that's true. Just just amusings than I have 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.360 about previous times. 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:33.160 And no insecticides. Yeah, there are many reasons why the 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.520 past is a terrible time to have lived, but it's 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.640 I mean, like hats are basically the only good thing 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:40.320 we could bring back. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:40.800 Hats. 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:41.480 Oh man. 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:44.760 I you know the first time I was stung by 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:49.240 a scorpion, I was four and I put I put 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.200 my my foot my shoe. Yeah, you always check your 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.040 shoes oh, I learned a lesson. I feel like that 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.480 should be a proverb. Always check your shoes. Always check shoes. 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.040 Scorpion may lurk inside. 0:16:59.200 --> 0:16:59.880 There's a T shirt. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.800 Anyway, Back to the cucumber. As we move into the 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.080 Middle Ages, cucumber first appeared in written records in France 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.280 in the ninth century CE, when Charlemagne decreed that they'd 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.399 be grown in his garden. Some writings from this period 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.280 suggest that cucumbers were introduced to England in the thirteen hundreds, 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:18.359 lost and then reintroduced two and a half centuries later. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.680 This is because the English had a word for cucumber 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:24.960 translated literally to earth apple as far back as ten 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.720 sixty sixtye, which suggests that at least somebody had seen them, 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.800 or maybe they got the idea from the Bible. Mysteries 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.239 of history yep. Catherine of Aragon is said to have 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.520 liked cucumbers and her salads. I do too. Catherine of 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:45.080 Aragon and fourteen ninety four Columbus. During Columbus again brought 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:49.040 them over to Haiti. When French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:52.400 in Montreal, he found quote very great cucumbers. But historians 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.080 think he was probably mistaken, given that they were such 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:56.879 a new crop in the New World at the time, 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:01.720 the time being fifteen thirty five. In fifteen thirty nine, 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.959 De Soto wrote that the cucumbers he found in Florida 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:09.520 were superior to the ones found in Spain. European colonialism 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.760 introduced them to Africa, too, and as more and more 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.000 trade took place between the Europeans and the indigenous peoples 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.639 of the Americas, the cucumber was adopted as a crop 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.560 in the New World, particularly with the tribes of the 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.600 Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. Several books penned in the 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.880 sixteen hundreds described cucumbers or cowcumbers. 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.240 Cucumbers as they were frequently called at the time. 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:36.440 Yeah, oh yeah, growing in New England colonies. And I 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:41.000 hope that can you indulge me, Lauren and listeners that 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:43.760 if I found an expert, I'd like to read from 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.880 a sixteen hundred book how to grow them in the Americas, 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:51.639 and the double entendres just oh please, please, do, thank you. 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.240 Cucumbers must be grown to an enormous length. Everybody wants 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.440 to have his fruit larger than his name. And if 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:03.560 it is so long that no dish can be found 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.520 to hold it, so much the better. But is there 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.320 any common sense in this of what use are these 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:13.320 long fruits except to make people stare? Are they better bearers? 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:17.680 Better cedars? Quite the contrary, they are simply longer, too 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:19.679 coarse to suit a cultivated taste. 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.720 Oh, that's that is? That is a lot. 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.800 It is, isn't it? It goes on And I like 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:32.320 stopped myself from reading the entire thing because it continues. 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:34.879 I'm glad that we're both twelve. 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:37.199 That's that's good. I hope that. 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.199 I hope that you listeners out there are also twelve 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:41.480 and enjoying that. 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:41.920 I hope. 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:42.040 So. 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:47.320 Physicians continued espousing the health benefits of cucumbers, and because 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:51.960 of its high water content and retentativeness, the retentative retentativeness 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.200 of the water, that's fun to say, cucumbers were thought 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.000 to never lose their cool and that's a quote. Because 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:01.560 of this, patients with fevers may be treated by a 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.960 laying on a bed of sliced cucumbers in order to 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.720 become as cool as a cucumber. 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.840 That usage popped up around the seventeen thirties. 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.320 Right, we're still using it. Today. 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:14.680 Right, Oh, it's great. 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.320 Yes. Eating cucumbers three times daily was also believed to 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.959 be a cure for pimples and a reddish nose. Yeah. 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.320 The inside of a cucumber can be as much as 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:26.360 twenty degrees fahrenheit less than the outside. 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:27.639 And that's like out in a sunny field. 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.920 Yeah, yeah, that's pretty impressive. And yeah, this is why 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.240 cucumbers are placed over the eyes at places like Spas. 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.959 For the coolness factor in actual temperature, that's probably cool. 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:40.480 Cool man, You probably don't look cool at all. 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.080 No, not really. I mean it's but you're comfortable. It 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:44.040 depends on your definition. 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:51.200 That's true. That's true, Lauren. However, the cucumbers public reputation 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.040 soon fell to the wayside in the late sixteen hundreds, 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.280 thanks in part to a growing distaste and prejudice against 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:01.440 eating raw fruits and vegetables. This prejudice got its roots 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:06.119 in several articles appearing in health publications claiming that uncooked 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:11.000 produce led to disease, was little better than trash, possibly poisonous, 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:14.440 and should not be fed to children. One article signaled 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.800 out the cucumber inspecific as a crop quote fit only 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:18.760 for cows. 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.040 Well maybe that's where that whole cowcumber thing comes from. 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:25.879 That's what some historians think. A sixteen sixty three diary 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.360 had this entry on the matter. This day, Sir W. 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:33.320 Batton tells me that mister Newhouse is dead of eating cowcumbers, 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:35.240 of which the other day I heard of another. I 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:41.600 think cucumber's. Cucumber's poor reputation hung around for quite a 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:46.840 while until the nineteenth century. A company that comes up 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.120 a lot on this show was in part to thank 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:53.080 for the good cucumber pr and restoration of its image, Heines. 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.200 Heines started selling pickles in eighteen seventy six. Other companies 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.480 followed soon after, and people got on board with the 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:01.200 cucumber again. 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:01.679 Yeah. 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:05.480 Yeah. During his time making their rounds through Asia, Minor 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:09.639 Frederick Hasselquist stumbled upon the Egyptian hairy cucumber, which he 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:14.080 described as quote queen of cucumbers, refreshing, sweet, solid, and 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:17.680 wholesome in that they quote still form a great part 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:19.760 of the food of the lower class people in Egypt, 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:24.399 serving them for meat, drink, and physic interesting. By eighteen 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:26.640 o six, there were at least eight varieties of cucumbers 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:29.480 growing in colonial America. 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:31.120 And they are a popular garden element to this day. 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:39.720 They are. I think in twenty fourteen it was named 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:42.720 the Year of the Cucumber, right, yeah, and it is 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:45.960 one of the top five fruits. I always want to say. 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.119