Cucumbers are among the oldest cultivated crops with an origin in India, and have been grown for at least 3,000 years.
Christopher Columbus is credited with bringing them to the New World, first to Haiti where he planted them. They were grown by European settlers and Native Americans after spreading to the mainland, and by the early 16th century cucumbers were cultivated in Florida and other regions. By 1806, eight varieties of cucumbers were found growing in American Colonial gardens.
The cucumber traveling through time has had some interesting encounters. Here are a few: The Egyptians made weak liquor by cutting a hole in the ripe cucumber, stirring the inside with a stick to liquefy, plugging the hole and burying it for several days. Then it was unearthed and consumed. The Roman Emperor Tiberius demanded cucumbers daily. In the 17th century physicians prescribed fever patients a bed of cucumbers so they would become “cool as a cucumber.” In the 20th century, the burpless cucumber wa...