The Origins Of The Cucumber Go Way Back
Chances are, sitting somewhere in your refrigerator, you have a slim, green, slender member of the cucurbit family waiting to be sliced up for a salad or turned into pickles. The cucumber is the third most popular vegetable in the world, in terms of the amount produced, per Statista. It seems like a quintessentially American veggie, but did you know that the origins of the cucumber go way back?
Like, way way back. As in, thousands of years, at least in terms of cultivated cucumbers as opposed to their wild predecessors. Scientific consensus is that cucumbers were domesticated from wild plants in the Indian subcontinent between 2000 and 3000 B.C. Once domesticated, the cucumber spread across the globe following historic trade routes, expanding throughout Asia, into Europe, and eventually to the Americas. It's believed that Christopher Columbus introduced the cucumber to the New World in 1494 when he brought them to Haiti.
Throughout the millennia since humans first began growing them, cucumbers have become integral ingredients in cuisines across the world. They can be found cubed or sliced in Mediterranean salads like Greece's Horiatiki or Šopska Salata in the Balkans. In the U.K. they're enjoyed in the elegant traditional cucumber sandwich. They are pickled every which way in nearly every corner of the globe. They are even stir-fried in common dishes found in Chinese and Korean cuisine.
Other fun cucumber facts
Cucumbers have also played a role in cultural history. The phrase, "cool as a cucumber" can be traced back to a 1732 poem by the English writer John Gay titled "A New Song." The Romans fed cucumbers to their soldiers, thinking that they gave the fighters strength. And King Henry VII, who is credited with helping to reintroduce cucumbers to England, owned a gardening guide that described cucumbers shaking with fear at the sound of thunder.
Here in the United States, cucumbers played a role in important food science breakthroughs. In the 1970s, researchers from North Carolina State University working with the Mt. Olive Pickle Company were able to figure out the process behind controlled fermentation, leading to a breakthrough in the pickling industry and allowing for a better, safer product.
During its long and storied history, the cucumber has played an important role in civilization, from important food source to cultural phenomenon. Even today the cucumber continues to turn heads, like with the viral TikTok of ranch-dusted cucumbers. Long live the cucumber!