Cucumber

Salted cucumber.

Cucumber season has descended on us again. Our CSA tends to try to bury us in them for a few months every year. Fortunately, when I have no other purpose in mind, they make great snacks with a little salt.

While I enjoy a cool, salted cucumber, I can't say I am as big a fan as Shabelski, a character in Chekhov's play "Ivanov." He declares: "every wise man since the creation of the world has been trying to invent something better than a salted cucumber, and not one has succeeded." (We are seeing a production of "Uncle Vanya" in a couple weeks which has inspired me to read through Chekhov's plays.)