When many people were planting larger gardens this year, Rita and I decided we would attempt to raise more with less. Our plan was smaller but more carefully managed garden space than we have had some years.

One of our goals was to use up seed left over from prior years. To make up for lower germination, we planted more seeds expecting to thin as needed.

Among our saved seeds was a package of cucumber seed. Apparently the seed company’s package had been damaged and the seed was transferred to a plain envelope or it was purchased from a bulk seed bin and placed in an envelope with only the word cucumber written on it. We didn’t know the variety or year it was intended to be planted.

Rita planted a few seeds and got a reasonable germination rate. We planned to trellis the plants but something got in the way and the plants have sprawled on the ground making it hard to find the ripe cucumbers.

Not only are they hard to find but they don’t look like cucumbers. The fruits are fat and stubby. Good for making relish but poorly shaped for pickles. For cucumber salad and refrigerator pickles we are cubing.

Other than looking strange most taste fine.

But you noticed I said most. Some have a very strong flavor and will spoil a fresh cucumber salad.

However, while reading about cucumbers, Rita found a solution.

The strong flavor we find objectionable is a natural cucumber response to ward off insects. Apparently the cucumber plant has learned that bitter tasting fruits discourage insects’ desire to chomp into the fruit. The undesirable flavor is concentrated near the stem end.

The bitter taste also discourages me but Rita taught me a trick the insects apparently don’t know.

Slice an inch or two off the stem end of the plant and then rub the two cut ends together until a milky substance quits coming out, Be sure to wash off all the white paste for that is what imparts the bitter taste.

And then the cucumbers make a fine salad with very little waste.

———————

When we first opened a newspaper office in Manakto, that office was located at 109 East Main which at that time had large plate glass windows so we could look from our office onto the street.

The large windows were a positive in the daytime, but I felt rather exposed working just inside those windows at night.

When we were moving next door to 111 East Main (the current office location) I missed the big windows and wondered how the Boyds produced a newspaper without a front window through which they could look onto the street.

When I was youngster, the Jewell County Record office also had big glass windows filled with flowers and used office machines like typewriters and adding machines. I suspect someone in the office enjoyed caring for flowers. As I remember the office machines were displayed there by a Phillipsburg office supply store. As a high school student taking typing, I likely checked out the machines for sale at the Record for I checked a number of stores before paying $65 for a used Royal that had once been used in a Hastings College office. I still have that typewriter but today I am writing about storms and not typewriters.

About the time the Jewell County Hospital was built, the Boyds had the hospital architect draw remodelling plans for the front of the Record office.

The architect removed all the windows and closed the open space with limestone blocks. Windows in the back shop area were filled with cement blocks.

After having worked 10 months in an office without windows, I didn’t want to ask anyone to work in a newspaper office without windows.

So before moving our office from 109 East Main to 111 East Main, I ordered some minor remodelling. The front entrance was shifted to a door which had led to a store room and the former front door space was filled with a piece of salvaged patio door glass the Mankato Lumber Company had access to.

Saturday I was surprised but thankful to learn the Record office window and door survived the hail storm undamaged while the school district office windows next door were broken. If the big plate glass windows that were once at the front of that building had broken and blown in. they would have made quite a mess.

But probably not as big a mess as Nancy Hofts, the operator of Amanda’s Cottage flower shop has in downtown Hebron.

Sunday evening a wind out of the east which was measured at more than 50 miles per hour, blew the entire front off her building located along the south side of the Hebron’s main downtown business street.

Fortunately, no one was in the building when the storm hit.

The front may have been weakened by a demolition project that removed an adjoining building to the east.

This year the flower shop was participating in the Nebraska Passport Program and before the storm was averaging 300 passport visits per month. With a temporary wall blocking off the front, I understand the shop is still stamping passports for those who have visited the world’s largest porch swing which is located in a park south of the store. However, this week entrance is now through the back door.