Two decades ago today I made a zucchini bread so bitter that even the dog wouldn’t eat it. The zucchini I grew that year inadvertently sent my teammates’ parents to the emergency room. The high levels of Curcurbitacin E in that zucchini was a 1 in a million plant find.

So, imagine my surprise when my travel sandwich today was bitter. A cucumber so bitter that I had to spit it out. I haven’t eaten a million Cucurbitaceae family vegetables in the last 20 years, so one would consider me a safe bet not to have another of these bitter ones in my lifetime.

And yet.

Lesson here? Stop eating vegetables.