All eyes on cucumbers
1 Native to the Himalayas, cucumbers were one of the first foods grown on purpose when their seeds were found in 9750 BC in Myanmar.
2 Ancient Egyptians would bury cucumbers for days to ferment into a low-alcohol beverage.
3 Botanically they are a fruit as they have seeds in the middle and grow from the yellow flower of the cucumber plant.
But because of how they are used in food prep, they are known as veg.
4 Ancient Romans used them to help treat scorpion stings and infertility and as they were so popular moveable green houses were used to ensure they were constantly on the grow. Emperor Tiberius chomped one every day.
5 Seventeenth-Century writer Samuel Johnson, behind a dictionary of the English language, was less of a fan. He said: “A cucumber should be sliced and dressed with pepper and vinegar, then thrown out as good for nothing.”
6 The expression “cool as a cucumber” comes from the 17thCentury belief that lying on a bed of cucumbers would help someone if they had a fever.
7 Famed explorer Christopher Columbus took cucumber seeds with him when he went travelling to the Americas.
8 Henry VIII’s first wife Catherine of Aragon, inset, was a huge fan of cucumbers in salads.
9 Super healthy cucumbers make a brilliant snack as they stabilise the metabolism, boost a full feeling in the tummy and are full of vitamin C, calcium, iron and more.
10 However, if you have a delicate tummy the cucurbitacin in cucumbers can cause burping.
11 Cucumbers were grown in space in 2010 in the International Space Station during a test to see how plant roots react in less gravity.
12 A slice of cucumber instead of tomato in your burger may sound odd but gherkins are actually pickled baby cucumbers.
13 Stinky breath? Hold a slice of cucumber on the roof of your mouth using your tongue for 30 seconds and let it wash out bacteria.
14 They can also be used to polish shoes, lubricate a squeaky hinge and get rid of puffy eyes.
15 The Guinness World Record for the most cucumbers sliced from a person’s mouth using a sword in one minute belongs to Ashrita Furman with 57.