They look like Sikkims--from Baker's Creek. You might check their website rareseeds.com. There's also one called Hmong Red in their catalog.

They could be Poona Kheera, which are brownish and came here from India. See the link below.

There are other yellow varieties that can take on a brownish, orangeish or tannish color, and they mostly are grown in Asia. Kekiri is one that's from Sri Lanka, but its' flavor doesn't match your description.

It is hard to guess. There are so many cucumbers available now in various shades of green, white, yellow, brown, etc. as seed companies compete to bring gardeners "new" (often actually very old varieties) varieties in non-standard colors.

Like some other veggies, cucumbers usually are harvested and used while still in their immature state when they are green. Most cucumbers turn various shades of yellow, orange, tan or a blend of those colors as they age, but most develop an unpleasant flavor as they age. That's why it seems more likely is it Poona Kheera or something similar since it still has good flavor and texture.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Poona Kheera

I saw that! They look like a cross between the Sikkim and the yellow Chinese cucumber. The people who planted the garden originally were Asian, so that makes sense. I cannot fathom what they intended to do with that many cucumbers. The bed was maybe 30 feet by 8?

Some of what we harvested were obviously overgrown, but the one I tasted was very good.

Many Oriental and Asian type cucumbers are used to make pickles, particularly salt pickles which are very popular in Japan. Also, in many parts of Asia, cucumbers are cooked and used in many more ways than we use them here in the USA.

It is common to plant a lot of cucumber plants if you want to do a lot of pickle batches over a really short time instead of doing a batch here and there all summer long. I imagine that's why they had so many plants.

I am not going to mention any names but somebody planted pickling cucumbers in my new back garden. They are trellised and the plants covered about 60 row feet of 8' high trellis, with about 40 or 45' of that being three pickling varieties (County Fair, Sumter and Eureka) and the rest being Armenian cukes. You wouldn't believe how many jars of pickles I've made this year. There are folks here in my area whose cucumber, okra, squash and melon plantings make me look like a slacker. As you know, I do a lot of food preservation but the big gardens I see near me should be producing enough produce to feed several families, and that includes preserving the excess for several families. I expect the garden where y'all harvested all the cukes also had belonged to someone who was into food preservation.

Dawn

I thought of Poona Keera too as they do turn brown when ripe, but none of mine have ever gotten that big before turning dark. The Poona Keeras are yellow until they turn dark. Are there any immature cucs on the vines?

Dawn, I thought of my parents' garden. It was always HUGE. My dad still has green beans my mom canned more than 15 years ago. My family has a history of doing things in a BIG way!! I was telling Sharon about the year our well pump failed and dad had planted a 100 hills of squash (maybe all hubbard -- winter squash, hopefully not!). My mom hand carried water to those hills all summer long!!! When we would harvest winter squash, our "freezer" room would have half filled with just squash.

Mulberry: There were a few immature cucs, but they were interplanted with other varieties and so many, that we were just picking as fast as we could.

Dawn, this was a picture I scanned of my mom canning one year. We canned and canned and canned!

I have it labeled the "year of the green bean canning", but I think I see pickles in there too. Mom loved bread and butter pickles. I like dill better, but I'll eat any pickle!

Lisa, Your folks are my kind of people! I love big gardens and I love big canning. I'm not sure I'd open and eat a 15 year old jar of beans though.

Your mom's kitchen counter lined with jars looks like mine on any random summer day when I've been canning. The pantry was full and overflowing before the end of June this year and I've run out of closet space where I can cram one more case of canned food into a corner or something. So, I bought some plastic under-the-bed storage boxes, filled them with jars of canned stuff, and now have canned food stashed away both upstairs and downstairs. I'm about ready to stop. I'll can jalapenos again at some point this fall because we give away a lot of jars of Candied Jalapenos at Christmas, but otherwise, I think I am about through canning.....unless I decide to make some dilly beans from part of the fall harvest.

Last week I harvested a total of 15 gallons of peppers, both hot and sweet. I froze several gallons of roasted peppers, froze a bunch of chopped and sliced sweet bells, canned a few dozen jars of jalapenos, and then sent a big bag of peppers to work with Tim to give to one of his co-workers. This week I'll harvest again (though not nearly as many) and send more to work because one of the guys saw those peppers Tim took in and said "I want some", so we'll give him some this week.

I was trying not to have a big canning year this year since I was only going to can peppers, some salsa and a lot of pickles, but somehow I have filled up all the pint jars anyway. (I still have quarts and half-pints though....)

We drove by one of those big gardens today and they've really let the bermuda grass and Johnson grass come in and take over the melon area now (but, it's August and who wants to be out in August heat pulling weeds?) but it looked like a highly productive garden in June and at least half of July.

I yanked out the pickling cukes today so I could use that area for fall plants. The 20-30 deer and half-dozen cottontails that have been eating pickling cukes every night for the last 3 weeks or so will be really disappointed. Tonight they'll get the last of the pickling cukes, and then tomorrow night. they'll be wondering what happened to their nice cucumber dinners.

I never have planted 100 hills of squash (and hope I never do) but one year I planted 30 different varieties of squash and had the most awesome and amazing harvest. It likely was in 2004 or 2006....because the squash vine borers hadn't found us yet. We had squash piled up everywhere and had the most amazing autumn displays of pumpkins, squash, Indian corn, etc. That was a fun year.

My goal always is to raise as much as I reasonably can and to preserve whatever we cannot eat fresh, but sometimes I just get tired of canning and give the excess away.

Because the cucumber beetles hadn't shown up and spread disease to the pickling cukes like they usually did, I just let them keep growing after I was through with the pickle making and I fed them to the wildlife. It has been so dry here that I have to make water puddles for the butterflies and fill pans with water for the wildlife, so I figured the wildlife would enjoy having cucumbers to eat, and they did. I think next year I'll plant a bunch of extra cukes on the back garden fence just for the wild animals.

We still have Armenian cukes growing on the fence, but the plants are getting old and worn-out and are slowing down so I don't know how much longer they'll last.

Now that I have cucumbers on the brain, I should work on my grow list for 2014 because I want to grow a bigger variety of sizes, shapes and colors. I have quite a few seeds for unusual varieties, but just haven't gotten around to planting them.

Dawn

Dawn, Do you ever share your canning/pickling recipes? I too have a load of jalepeno peppers that I'd like to pickle in slices to use on nachos. Do you have have such a recipe?

Lynda