Adventures from India
There is nothing better than having fresh, local and organic vegetables and fruits available for you and your family. You are missing out if you have yet to experience going to the farmers market. The fact that you are supporting local farmers and spending time outside with your family is a great way to start your morning off. Although Seguin does not have a farmers market we are lucky to be surrounded by great cities that do have farmers markets every weekend. I have been to both farmers markets that are held on Saturday and Sunday in San Antonio so I wanted to experience something new. I was told that New Braunfles has a great farmers market so I woke up early Saturday morning and set off to explore.
I know the general area of where the market would be, so I had no problem finding it. When I was walking up towards the market I saw many people sitting on picnic tables eating with their families and lines of tents with farmers selling so many kinds of fruits, vegetables and meats. I began making my way down each booth, stopping to look at the table to see if I could spot an unfamiliar item I would be able to take home with me. I am a huge veggie eater so I was familiar with most of the produce the venders had and I really thought that I was going home empty handed. I made my way around the entire farmers market, when something caught my eye.
At first glance I thought I was looking at loafs of bread but when I approached the table I was surprised to find out I was looking at a vegetable. The table was covered with these light yellow vegetables and I proceeded to take a closer look. I asked the farmer what exactly the strange looking vegetable was and she told me that I was looking at an Indian cucumber.
Indian cucumbers are sweeter and crispier than regular green cucumbers and to make it even better I found out the Indian cucumber are also burp less.. I never realized that regular cucumbers make me burp but I thought that was very interesting so I took a basket worth. Everything looked, felt and smelled exactly the same from a regular cucumber to the Indian cucumbers; so the last thing I needed to do was taste the difference. My drive home I was really excited about what I was going to do with my Indian cucumbers. By the time I got home I had decided how I would eat my Indian cucumbers and I began to prepare my meal. I figured that cooking a cucumber would taste wired and since vegetables taste best raw I figured I would make a cucumber salad.
I washed the romaine lettuce I had also picked up from the farmers market and tossed it in a bowl. I grabbed some tomatoes, cut them into pieces and did the same to the Indian cucumber. I also added a few pieces of white onion and some crumbled blue cheese. I topped my salad with some Italian dressing and had such a great looking salad for lunch. The Indian cucumber was thicker than a regular cucumber and appeared to have more seed but when I took a bit I thought the Indian cucumber was much crunchier. The taste was mildly sweet but I thought it complemented my salad very well, I think the texture, freshness and color makes this a great vegetable and I hope you will be able to stumble upon it and give it a try.
I had never heard of Indian cucumbers until now! When you said that you had never realized that "regular" cucumbers make you burp are you talking about eating them raw or seasoned and with a meal? Could you say that regular cucumbers are harder to digest than these new Indian cucumbers? Also, would you say that cucumbers you've tried before are milder in taste than the Indian cucumber? I liked how you used comparison because it helps the readers know how to relate this new vegetable to one they may be familiar with.
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