Hi All! I am signing in from Juneau, AK. My amazing vacation is coming to a quick close....

B

barbara-in-va

Well-known member
We have had a fabulous almost 2 weeks in the liquid sunshine of Juneau's August. There is this very cool little store in town called Rainbow Foods and Deli. It is located in an old church and is a sorta health foods, organic foods store. I would be in there everyday if it was near my house trying all the "new to me" stuff.

Anyway, this mornintg when I was buying some wild huckleberry honey to pour over my figs and yogart I spied a wild yellow item in the produce section. I asked what it was and was told it is a lemon cucumber. It is about the size of a fat, round lemon. Has anyone ever heard of this? What do you do with it? And where is it from, as most of the produce here is imported?

Ang, saw your pic of the black bears, what a great shot! We saw one by Mendenhall Glacier yesterday, apparently on his way to the salmon stream. We have also had the great privilidge to see many bald eagles, juvenile and adult, all feeding on the salmon, we shared a lone beach in Bridgett Cove with an unimpressed porccupine, spied several beautiful stellar blue jays while hiking, seals fishing in the harbor, whales breeching in Chatham Strait, salmon on their way home skipping across the water also in Chatham Strait and another black bear on an empty beach along Chatham Strait. What a ride these two weeks have been for me!

 
Wow! No clue about the cucumber but thanks for the mini travelogue

I love to hear about other places. You almost make me want to give up my tropical vacations to try Alaska one year. Almost...

 
Sounds like you're having a wild ;o) vacation! I've got to get up there soon too.

Lemon cucumbers...yet another new food! Here is a blurb courtesy of Cook's Thesaurus:

Lemon Cucumber: This versatile cucumber is sweet and flavorful, and doesn't have much of the chemical that makes other cucumbers bitter and hard to digest. Though it's often served raw, it's also a good pickling cucumber.

http://www.organicseed.com/order/product/38/

 
Lemon Cucumber..........grown in California, and other places, I'm sure......

about the size of a lemon. Mild in flavor, no lemon taste, full of seeds, especially when older, and depending on where they are coming from, the taste will be different, as with most cukes. Use in salads, sandwich, use the same as regular cukes. No mystery about them.

 
Hi Barbara, Great to hear you are having such an adventerous vacation...

my husband was in Alaska several years ago on a fishing trip and brought back great stories and wonderful pictures. The Bears are amazing. We have Black Bears here in N.J. and I see them very often but the Grizzly Bears in Alaska are a site to be seen.

Enjoy the rest of your trip and look forward to your posts.

Gay

 
I grow lemon cucumbers in my backyard every year, very easy to grow. Delicious in

salads or even eaten plain in slices. Your vacation sounds wonderful. Alaska is such a great state...have fond memories of cruising and vacationing there.

 
I'm so glad you're enjoying your visit. Liquid sunshine indeed. We are flooding up here. Did you

go berry picking? Berries are getting ripe now. Wild blueberry muffins----yum! I find them too strong for a wild blueberry pie, so I usually mix them with other fruit/berries or with some frozen commercial berries. They are smaller up here and very intense flavor. Did you wear your bear bells when hiking? HaHa. We hope to catch some silver salmon this weekend, and maybe a few reds still. Maybe I'll drag the smoker out. Enjoy the rest of your trip! I hope the sun comes out a bit for you. It wasn't this wet last year. bummer.

 
Barbara, so glad you have had fun, it has been a very wet year, wave when fly over Ketchikan!!..Ang,

was wondering the floods were affecting you guys? Hope not. Couldn't believe the pics of poor little Cordova in the paper!
Barbara, so glad you saw some wildlife, those dudes can be very elusive at times. Please post some details when you catch your breath at home.
Happy trails,
Nan

 
Hi Ang! No bear bells when hiking, just lots of noise from us hikers. Massive amounts of berries...

on the trails, mostly blueberries and salmonberries. Both are juicy and tart. However, we were so busy oggeling the amazing scenery (in spite of the rain) we didn't pick any, just munched along the way.

We bought the MOST delicious halibut at the Foodland grocery, pure white flesh, I have never seen it so white before. We just squeezed some lime juice, sprinkled some herbs and baked in a covered dish. Think we all died and went to heaven it was so good. We have also had lots of really good salmon too. The local hatchery sells the best smoked salmon around.

We're hoping to go on a float plane ride today, our last day. It flies over 5 glaciers than lands up the Taku Inlet at a lodge that is not road accessible. There we have salmon dinner and hike for a while before returning. However chances are they will cancel again today because of bad weather and I will have to come back to Alaska another time! Have read about the flooding further up north from us, hope all is well in Anchorage.........

We were fortunate enough to see some sun last weekend when we took the ferry to Sitka. It was a beautiful sunny weekend but no cruise ships were in harbor so many of the activities were closed. So, we hiked alot, visited the amazing Raptor Rehab Center and the Totem Pole National Park where the bald eagles seemed to hang out.

The liquid sunshine was just merely a small deterant, I would trade my time here for anything!

 
Pat and Karen, thanks for the info on the lemon cucumber. Guess they don't grow in the east....

and I don't have time left to try them here! Another reason to come back to the west coast soon...........

 
Barbara, I don't see why you couldn't grow them. If you have space in your yard I'll gladly send you

a packet of seeds so you can try it out next summer. Check your email, I'll send you a PM to work out the details.

 
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