Random question about cucumbers

When you aren't going to use a whole cucumber in one go, which end do you start slicing it from? The stalk end or the end where the flower was? And why?

I just realised that I always do it the same way but I don't really have a reason.

 

I always start from the flower end on the principle that it doesn't matter too much if the stalk end goes soggy before I use it Being a chicken-keeper, though, it's largely academic

 

The fresh end....

 

Why does it matter? I tend to pick mine, hold the stalk end and eat the other end as I go to the kitchen. I could also go the other way round, it'll still taste the same.

 

I always start slicing at the stalk end if the cucumber is one that I grew myself.

That is because I harvest cucumbers with a small nub of the stalk remaining on the fruit and the first cut is the prepping cut like how you always clean and prepare other fruit and veg from a certain end.

 

I slice starting from the non- stemmed end to get larger slices from the start, plus the stem is handy to hold when nibbling the last bit.

Most scientifically I'd like to also press the point that the non-stemmed end has more seeds and water and thence tends to dry out faster than the more dense stemmed end. (A besserwisser... moi? )

 

My mother always started slicing the cucumber from the non-stalk end. Then a sliver would be taken from the actual stalk and the remaining cucumber would be placed stalk end down in a jug with an inch of water in the bottom and kept in the cool pantry and it would keep for ages like that.

 

I always start slicing from the flower/non-stalk end but it occurred to me yesterday (for the first time, probably getting on for 50 years since I first sliced a cucumber) that I have no rationale for it, so I wondered if other people had a similar habit, with or without a reason.

@Dovefromabove maybe my mum or gran did that before they had fridges, kept the habit of slicing from the non-stalk afterwards and passed it on to me. Thanks

 

Slightly off topic but how do you peel a banana?
I've always started from the stalk end, but someone I know always started at the other end, where the flowers was and it involved biting into the side at that end in order to get a start.

I always told him he peeled them in a similar way to chimpanzees,

 

I don't peel or eat bananas. Yuk