Here are some lovely home grown cucumbers from my mum’s vegie garden!  Yum.  Summer is the season for this cooling vegetable (“cool as a cucumber”) that is similar to a fruit in that its a flowering vegetable!

They don’t contain a lot of nutrients but they also contain no calories!  The seeds do contain the highest amount of Vitamin E of all the vegetables and they do contain some vitamin A, C  and potassium.  The skin is high in silicon, folic acid and chorophyll (unless you eat the white variety as in the picture, which doesn’t contain as much chorophyll).  They are 95% water, so another way to get more water in your day.

Extremely beneficial medicinally!  They contain a digestive enzyme that  helps to break down protein and cleanses the intestines, which can help destroy worms and parasites!  Excellent to use on burns, particularly sunburn (apply the juice directly to the skin), drinking the juice can relieve kidney and bladder infedctions, eating the whole cucumber or juicing it can relieve many inflammatory conditions eg stomach inflammation, conjuctivitis, sore throat, acne and other inflamed skin conditions.

Cucumbers are mainly eaten raw, although some cultures do cook them.  They can also be fermented and used as pickles.  Eat them in salads, on sandwiches, add to soups and stirfries, add them to your fresh vegie juice, make cooling raita’s for your curry, tatziki and other dips with them or homemade pickles.  They are just so versatile!

Tomorrow after New Year’s Eve, you may have hot, inflamed, swollen, dry or irritated eyes….a pack of grated cucumber placed over the eyes will make your eyes sparkle again!