Nancybito...
Glad to hear from Dave that you have plenty of time to plant more cukes in your area. In addition to the suggested varieties Kent gave above I'd recommend any of the "burpless" varieties as they tend to have less cucurbitacin in them, which is the compound that carries the bitterness.
Many cuke varieties will produce an excessive amount of cucurbitacin due to environmental factors (e.g. excessive heat and/or drought, extreme temperature changes). Your first cukes might have suffered but I bet if you had left the plants the cukes to follow might've been much more tasty if you watered regularly and/or mulched, and crossing fingers your local temps don't soar excessively. The only time I've heard of a cuke plant consistently producing bitter cukes was when the parent plant the seeds came from were crossed with one of the many wild cucurbits.
Oh yeh, oftentimes the bitterness is mostly in the stem end of the cuke; cutting that end off and eating the rest might give you something much more tasty! And as you may know, just peeling the cuke will reduce the bitterness as well.
Wishing you a good future harvest! And a hearty hello and WELCOME to ATP!
Shoe (with plenty of cukes cut up with sliced onions, crushed/diced garlic, a bit of dill, soaking in a vinegar solution and chilling in the fridge. Yummy!~)
