Image from martin.eclecticblogs.caJac was asking me what a zucchini plant looks like, so I decided to post a picture of one for all those that may be unfamiliar with this particular vegetable. One plant is generally enough to feed a couple of people for quite a few months. As you can see, this plant clearly has at least 6 fruits already growing. And it will keep producing until frost.
Zucchini can be eaten raw, although most people prefer it cooked. You can bake them, fry them, roast them, grill them, boil them, make breads and cakes with them. They are great stuffed with whatever you like to eat. They are fabulous added to tomato dishes. I make pancakes with them. You can dry them and make flour with them. They are so versatile, even the flowers are edible. If I find any recipes for those, I will certainly post them.
They do best in temperate climates. So I guess my feed the world campaign might not work out after all. They do keep for about a month after cutting them from the vine, unless they are very small. The smaller ones are best for cooking whole, since the seed are small. The larger ones are best used for stuffing, recipes requiring grated zucchini, or for making flour.
We gardeners in the temperate regions of the world are most familiar with the running joke of the astounding proliferation of this plant. I know so many people that think the only thing they are good for is bread. That is why I will be posting zucchini recipes. Maybe you'll get some fresh ideas and you'll never have a problem knowing what to do with all that damn zucchini!
9 comments:
Sylvana, I'm in Zone 3, definitely not a temperate climate and yet they grow very well here. I love them when they're tiny, sliced and stir-fried with onions and thinly sliced carrots.
There used to be a joke going around:
Question: How do you know when a man has no friends?
Answer: You see him in the store, buying zucchini!
Thanks Syl!! for the pic. We have it plenty of it here in the market and we prefer to have it raw when it is tender. There is a delecious Turkish/Greek dish named 'Dolma' which is actually Zucchini and rice and tomoto and lots of spices stuffed inside carved out Brinjal and is very populer in Iran, Iran and Turkey.
I haven't it in my backyard but I plan to have some in this season
Sabine, I think agriculturally speaking, temperate zones are those that do not have permafrost, but do get frost, even if only slightly.
Jac, great! They are so delicious! You will have to send me some recipes. If I don't know what something is, I can usually find it on Google.com- such as brinjal here is known as eggplant. I have no idea why! I have NEVER seen a purple egg! The French and English know zucchini as corgettes.
I didn't know that. Well, I just learned something new.
I know that some people grow huge zucchini in Alaska for contests, but I believe they use black plastic for warming the soil.
I love Zuchinni, however my friend who said she was going to supply me with some informed me Friday none of her's grew. This is the first time I heard of someone failing to produce a crop.
That is VERY STRANGE INDEED!!
Where I live (and I know it is the opposite to oyu), we never lock our cars - except between December and March - in case someone finds it open and fills it with Zucchinis!
LOL! Thanks! I love a good laugh. It's also nice to see that joke really is world-wide!
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