Fresh cucumber, lightly salted, pickled … A rare table does without this vegetable. But he is a foreigner who came to Russian lands just a few centuries ago. This culture has come a long way, spreading throughout the world and winning the hearts of people with its taste.
Cucumber history
The cucumber belongs to the genus Cucumis, the Cucurbitaceae ("Pumpkin") family. It first appeared as a culture about 6,000 years ago. India and China are considered the homeland of the plant, where one of the representatives of the genus - Hardwick's cucumber - still grows wild. This vegetable is often found in the mountainous regions of Nepal. The fruits of the wild cucumber are small and bitter, so they are not edible and can even cause poisoning. The wild cucumber grows like a liana and is very decorative.
Cucumber as a cultivated plant was known in Ancient Egypt and Greece. The Greeks used it as an antipyretic agent. There is evidence that the vegetable was present on the dining tables of the emperors of Rome Augustus and Tiberius. Edible cucumbers were rare and were considered the privilege of royalty. His image was applied to some ancient Greek temples. In Greece, this vegetable was given the name "aoros", which means "unripe" in translation, since at that time cucumbers were eaten unripe. The Greek “aoros” was assimilated into the word “auguros”, from the paraphrase of which the Russian name “cucumber” appeared.
It is generally accepted that the cucumber was brought to Europe from southeast Asia, where it came thanks to the ancient Greek conquerors. The French domesticated the cucumber only in the middle of the 17th century, and a little later the vegetable appeared in Germany and Spain.
The appearance of the cucumber in Russia
Most likely, the cucumber was brought to Russia from Asia. For the first time, a cucumber is mentioned in the notes of the German Ambassador Herberstein about a trip to Persia and Muscovy. But historians agree that they knew about the cucumber in Russia already at the turn of the 10th century. A special farm for the cultural cultivation of vegetables was created by order of Peter I, although by that time the vegetable was already grown in the gardens of ordinary people and was a familiar food for the peasants. On Russian soil, the vegetable took root, grew better than in Europe, and had a more pronounced taste. This was noted by both European travelers and Russian farmers.
Cucumber became the first crop in Russia grown in greenhouses. Until the 18th century, the cultivation of cucumber used cold ridges and warm nurseries with shelters from the light, steam ridges, ridges and heaps. Soil heating was carried out using manure. And in the 19th century, greenhouses with glazed frames and the famous Klin single-slope greenhouses with pine forest heating appeared.
At the beginning of the 20th century, various structures for protected ground began to appear in Russia. Glass and oiled paper were used as shelter from the sun. And from the second half of the 20th century, the construction of industrial greenhouse complexes began. The appearance of a polymer film in the 60s. The 20th century made it possible to build spring greenhouses and shelters. At present, cucumber, as a crop growing in greenhouses, ranks first in Russia in terms of acreage and second in the world.
