Discussion

Cucumber (Cucurbitaceae family)

Technically speaking, the cucumber is a fruit, not a vegetable, though it is most often thought of as a vegetable. Originally coming from South Asia, cucumbers were cultivated as long as 3000 years ago in India. Cucumbers are now grown all around the world.

Annuals, cucumbers begin as seeds as do most plants. These are dried seeds.

Placed in appropriate soil, cucumber seeds soon sprout.

The cucumber is a creeping vine that grows up trellises or other supporting frames, wrapping around supports with thin, spiraling tendrils.

Flowers come in both male and female varieties on the same plant.

Some types of cucumbers don't require pollination. These varieties are called parthenocarpic cucumbers.

As cucumber plants mature, cylindrical fruit appears.

The fruit is 95% water. Of the remainder, 4% is carbohydrates and 1% is protein. Nutritionally, cucumbers are only notable for vitamin K. The various varieties fall into three categories based on their most common usage; slicing, pickling, and burpless (or seedless).

This fully grown cucumber is a pickling type.

Others are a bit larger.

These slicing cucumbers are more typical.

The Romans loved them. According to Pliny the Elder, Emperor Tiberius had them every day, year round. Besides eating, the Romans used them to treat scorpion stings and bad eyesight. Some people today feel cucumber slices are good for one's complexion.

Kyūri is a Japanese cucumber variety. It has a crispy and juicy texture, thin skin, and is mostly eaten raw, though some cooking recipes exist. It contains vitamin C, carotene, and potassium. It is supposed to be good for high blood pressure and suppress cancer.

There is a plant called a wild cucumber (Echinocystis) in North America, but it is not closely related to the commercial variety in grocery stores. All parts of the wild cucumber are toxic to some degree. Native Americans used to "fish" by throwing pulverized wild cucumber root into streams. This stunned the fish which were then simply gathered up by hand.

Eggplant (Solanum melongena)

Eggplant is a member of the nightshade family. It is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Like the cucumber, eggplant is a fruit that is usually treated like a vegetable. It is often eaten cooked. China and India combined account for about 87% of the world's production of eggplants.

Eggplants have significant quantities of manganese, copper, and vitamins B6 and B1. These nutrients remain even after the fruit is boiled. The skin has antioxidant properties. The leaves of eggplants are narcotic and toxic to consume but have been traditionally used to make a soothing poultice for the treatment of burns, abscesses, cold sores, and other similar conditions.

This photo gives another look at the leaves.

An eggplant flower.

he seeds are tiny. That is a penny that the scoop is resting on.

Eggplants come in a variety of colors and shapes, though most are elongated like fat bananas and purple. The image below is from the Japanese Seikei Zusetsu agricultural encyclopedia, published in 1804

Artwork

Itō Jakuchū (1716 – 1800)

Jakuchū was an eccentric painter in the Edo period not associated with any school, though he did have early training in the Kanō school. He was known for his meticulous attention to detail and preferred to paint from life. Chickens and roosters were his favorite subjects. in 1792, he painted an emaki, a long scroll, titled Saichūfu (Vegetable and Insects). This a detail of a small segment of it with an eggplant in the center. I'm not sure whether the long green object in the left background is a cucumber or not.

Nagamachi Chikuseki (Active 1900 to 1910s)

Little is known about Chikuseki aside from some ukiyo-e of his. This Sparrow on Cucumber Stem was done in 1905.

Eiichi Kotozuka (1906 – 1981)

Kotozuka is not a classical Japanese artist, but he did to an eggplant picture. He was prominent in the sōsaku-hanga movement. Instead of a team producing hanga (woodblock prints)––artist, carver, inker/printer, etc.––one person, the artist, did everything. This Bird and Eggplant was produced about1950.