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The children of Israel longed for the vegetables of Egypt. This is recorded in Num. 11:5. The cucumbers were of a an excellent quality, as were other melons and gourds. These vines grew well in the excessive heat and were food for the poor.
Isaiah 1: 8 describes "a lodge in a garden of cucumbers". This is a crude temporary shelter built in open fields that would have had vines growing over it. A man or young boy would sit and watch the plants to guard them from robbers and foxes or other animals.
The cucumber of Bible days is likely very close to the vegetable we serve today.
The Hebrew name for a cucumber garden is a mikshah.
Numbers 11:5 (KJV) We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:
Isaiah 1:8 (KJV) And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
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