Zucchini
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Hmm. You have an easy-going neighborhood. In mine, we have border guards and folks with zucchini are met with automatic weapons locked and loaded.
Software Zen:
delete this;:laugh: :laugh:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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:laugh: :laugh:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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As far as I've ever known, what you're growing is yellow summer squash; zucchini are dark green, but they are obviously close relatives. I've grown both, and have found no better way to alienate neighbors than walking down the street with a cart full of zucchini. After the first few harvests of the season drapes are drawn, doors slammed and bolted, and lights turned out until you pass safely out of range. One good plant goes a long way! :-D Another very productive type is Scallop Squash[^], which seems to continue producing all summer long, as fast as you can cut it.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Well this American never heard of 'courgette'. Where I'm from we always called that 'summer squash'. Sorry, can't tell you why it might be bitter though.
In my experience, bitterness is usually due to how fast it grows at what stage of its growth cycle. If it is slow towards the end, with little late rain - it can be very bitter. For me, it is better eaten early - even immature. Courgette sounds like a French word, Zuchinni must be an Italian word. The English used to call them Marrows. And yes, they are a variety of summer squash! I don't know which word is in predominant use in America.
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So, every year we grow yellow zucchini, b/c once we have that in, we never eat any other type. This year, I've cooked with it twice and both times it's so bitter that it renders any food cooked remotely near it to be inedible. Any CP gardeners have any idea how this could happen ? They look great, the plant is growing great, at one point some leaves were a little yellow, so I gave it some plant food. It's growing in an area that was basically clay, so I bought bags of potting mix to put a layer on top. The cucumber and the lettuce from that area taste great, and the chilis and capsicum ( peppers for Yanks ) are also growing well.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
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Well we Yanks definitely call those "summer squash" ("zucchini" are by our definition green). A quick Google of "bitter summer squash" yielded this from the University of Purude "Zucchini and summer squash are usually slightly sweet. Flavor is not a major quality concern. Very rarely a squash fruit will be so bitter it is not edible and might cause medical problems. The bitter compounds are tetracyclic triterpenes called cucurbitacins. Although the reason for this occasional bitter squash is not definitely known, it has been proposed that it is due to rare cross-pollination with a bitter-fruited cucurbit during seed production, and subsequent planting and growth of a seed with the genes for bitterness. Contrary to what is sometimes thought, cross pollination of a zucchini or squash plant with a gourd plant will not cause the harvested zucchini or squash to be bitter." At the very least it looks like they should head straight for the compost bin.
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As far as I've ever known, what you're growing is yellow summer squash; zucchini are dark green, but they are obviously close relatives. I've grown both, and have found no better way to alienate neighbors than walking down the street with a cart full of zucchini. After the first few harvests of the season drapes are drawn, doors slammed and bolted, and lights turned out until you pass safely out of range. One good plant goes a long way! :-D Another very productive type is Scallop Squash[^], which seems to continue producing all summer long, as fast as you can cut it.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Vikram...yeah, that is pepper, or pepper corns. Peppers, or sweet peppers, are also called peppers. And the other sorts of peppers are called chillis, or chilli peppers. Easy eh?
Ha ha, I think we Indians have the cleanest solution ;) What I linked to is pepper, as for the fruits, the thin hot ones are chillies, and the big non-hot ones are capsicums.
Cheers, Vikram. (Got my troika of CCCs!)
