I spent the last 2 hours making cucumber boats. Since that sounds odd, it might help if I said that I grew Japanese Climbing cucumbers for seed. They set a huge crop of which I gathered the first 30 or 40 to eat then let them set a second round of blossoms so I could harvest the seed. The cucumbers were at the right stage for harvest, overripe, turned white (many cucumber varieties turn orange at maturity), and had no trace of crisp texture left. If I had waited another 3 or 4 days, the seed would have started germinating inside the fruit which would have made a mess and reduced seed quality.

Cucumber seed are easily removed from the fruit by slicing in half lengthwise, then running fingers or a large spoon through the pulpy middle forcing the seed and pulp into a bucket. The remainder of the fruit looks kind of like a canoe. It is useless for anything except making compost or as animal feed.

Seed quality is going to be pretty good. About 1/2 of the seed were not filled out properly which is typical. I will separate the filled seed from the husks in 2 days when I wash the seed and prepare them for drying. For right now, they are in a 4 gallon bucket which is nearly full.

After 2 days of fermenting, I will stir and maybe squeeze them by hand to break up the pulp. The good seed normally sink to the bottom if I can just get them stirred free of the gel sac they grow in. They will need one more day to ferment and another stirring and then will be poured out onto a large screen where the juice will drain away. The seed then have to be rubbed on the screen which breaks up the remaining pulp and forces it through the screen leaving mostly good seed and empty seedcoats. These are then put back into a bucket and repeatedly washed letting the good seed settle to the bottom and pouring off anything that floats. I usually have to fill the bucket 3 or 4 times and pick out some large pulp pieces by hand before the seed are fully clean.

Put the clean seed in a thin layer on paper towels in a large tray and let them dry. Stir the seed daily to ensure even drying and keep them from clumping. It takes about 3 weeks to get dry enough to store in the freezer.

DarJones