Would you use the term cucumber-time and why?

During International Law studies I talked to English natives about politics, using a literal translation of the Dutch "komkommertijd", cucumber time, meaning to refer to the news-silent period of high summer. I thought they understood me.

Later it occurred to me that they might simply have nodded out of courtesy and may have missed the actual meaning. Looking it up, I found that cucumber time seems a dated term, out of use since more than a century.

Would you consider cucumber time and silly season to be equivalent? Would you use either phrase or prefer one over the other?

Update: this German text implies the English term is still in use, while this Dutch text explicitly states the term is out of fashion and largely forgotten.

You appear to have answered your own question.

There does seem to be a period where real news appears to dry up and is replaced with more light-hearted material while the heavyweight correspondents are on holiday. In Britain this is universally known as the silly season. In fact I've never heard of "cucumber time".