Late Harvests

I planted a couple of zucchini plants at the end of February, hoping that they might just give us a few fruit before the cooler weather sets in. The two we had earlier in the year grew crazy wild (per usual) and produced lots of fruit, but they end up getting destroyed by mildew after a few months. One is actually still producing; I picked a whopper off it this week that had been overlooked. The other has already been pulled out though. So I figured a later harvest might be handy. I honestly doubted whether I had got them in the ground in time. Last year I was too late and we missed out. But I have already picked a fruit off the green zucchini, and was very impressed to see multiple tiny fruit forming on the yellow one when I visited the garden earlier this week.

I don't really 'like' zucchini, I must admit. But they are hard to resist as a gardener, as they are generally so easy to grow and produce well. I have worked out though, that zucs go well with other veges - in quiche, casserole, or soup - because they are fairly tasteless vegetables so blend in well with the other veges. The other two ways I like to eat them are stir-fried (so they don't go all yucky gooey mushy!) or raw in a salad (yes, you can do that!).

Here is a snap shot of our two late harvest plants at the beginning of March. They are at least double this size now! That's the only major drawback of growing zucchini in a smaller garden - they do have a tendency to lean, or ramble, or otherwise take up space as they get older! But hey, I shouldn't be too picky about something that provides us with so much food.

Amy

Saturday, 26th March, 2011