Heirloom Cucumbers Seeds

Cucumber: history and varieties

The cucumber (Cucumis sativus) belongs to the cucurbits and is an ancient crop. It originated in India, where it was already cultivated around 1500 BCE. The first cucumbers in Europe can be found around 200 BCE, as they were a very popular food among the Romans. In Central Europe, most countries distinguish two basic cucumber species: The salad cucumber which is eaten raw or gherkins which are mostly eaten pickled.

Cucumbers are more sensitive to bad weather and are often grown in the greenhouse. The fruits are green, have smooth skin, grow long and straight or slightly curved and about 20-35 cm long and weigh between 300 and 500 grams. They are eaten fresh, raw and uncooked in salads. The more robust gherkins are normally grown outdoors without protection. They are harvested unripe and often preserved as pickles and sour gherkins in glass jars. These varieties are shorter and slightly thicker than cucumbers. They can have smooth or spiky skin and also have a green color.

Incidentally, the fruit of the cucumber is a berry and as such belongs in fact to the berries - for the sake of simplicity, we offer our cucumber seeds in the vegetable category
.