There was a time in my life where my morning ritual consisted of venturing out to my swing set to blare the Enchanted soundtrack at 7am before making my way to the garden. Being the heat-intolerant 11-year-old that I was, my job was to pick our over-sized vegetable garden - a task best done before the sweltering Virginia heat set in. This meant gathering baskets of green beans, armfuls of zucchini, piles of pumpkins, and up to one hundred cucumbers each day.

Yes, one hundred cucumbers.

My mother had a very green thumb when it came to cucumbers, zucchini, and eggplant.