What with too many gophers and not enough bees, our vegetable garden is not as abundant as we’d hoped. Even the several varieties of summer squash, which usually can be counted on to produce more than the most ardent squash lover can eat, aren’t setting much fruit.

Deciding to drown our horticultural sorrows we needed a garnish for the martinis. Something different…there, on the counter! An Armenian cucumber. It’s in the same family as the squash but is setting fruit much better. They’re slender, pale green, and curl into a circle. Let’s give it a try.

Into the glass goes a slice.

Verdict by the resident Martini expert? “Cool and refreshing. I think I like that better than olives!”

We’ve also enjoyed these cucumbers sliced up in soups. Turns out, though, that while they look and taste like cukes they’re technically melons, Cucumis melo var. flexuosus. True cucumbers are Cucumis sativus.