A 60-year-old cuke?

by Luke Vidic

ORLEANS — In a 61-year-old bottle, Mike Tanguay keeps a 60-year-old secret.  It isn’t a map to buried treasure or a message from a marooned sailor, and neither is it something as ornamental as a ship in a bottle.  Rather, it’s something that would be at home in the pantry of a haunted house.

What Mr. Tanguay keeps in his precious jar is a 61-year-old cucumber.  Over the years, the cucumber’s vinegar has browned, likely due to exposure to air and sunlight, and the cucumber has darkened to a shade of black.

Like a ship in a bottle, the intrigue comes from wondering how such a big item fits into a bottle with an opening the size of a quarter.  That was accomplished by growing the cucumber, from bud to adulthood, within the jar.

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