recently I picked some beautiful but somewhat large cucumbers that were under the vines in my garden. Upon trying to eat the my wife and I were suprized to find they tasted awful, hard to discribe, but you had to spit them out, and wash your mouth out. The same plants produced great flavoring fruit earlier in the year. I am puzzled at what the cause is Please Help?????

Can I ask a question??
When you look for a cucumber to pick and eat,
earlier in the season... did you go for the littler, green cucumbers??
As opposed to a bigger sized one??

The larger cucmbers can have a bitter type taste when picked large...The smaller ones usually taste fine.

You know it's funny...
How different peoples tastes are..

My mother and Granny LOVED the little green one's.. w/no seeds, dark green and I thought BITTER!!
And my father and I liked the older, bigger ones' with big seeds in it..
(we even grow the pickling cuke's and let them get big, and a tinge of yellow.. they're tangie like)

First off thanks for the replies!
weeze: I can not remember the size, these were quite large as i said, but have ate large one before and experienced nothing to this effect. It really almost made us both gag and loose are dinner, might just be one of those things?

Hello Fishfinder,

I have had the same problem off and on. Here's a link to help you understand what is going on and at the end is a very simple solution. Hope this Helps.

http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb1250/eb1250.html

Thanx a bunch, sure makes sence. Will have to try peeling them deeper to see if it makes any difference.

That was a nice site...The one I grow National Pickling...had a rating of 23%, so I can live with that. I've grown this same variety for years and can tell by looking at the shape or size, color of the skin etc, if it is going to be one of those bitter ones. And a lot of those large ones are not bitter. When making pickles I always taste one slice or chunk from each cucmber, to make sure it just right LOL.