Our courgette plants are now well past their best. They’re looking a bit sorry for themselves and many of the leaves look like this.
They’re coated in powdery mildew, which you often get about this time of year. There’s not a lot you can do, just remove any affected leaves. The plants aren’t going to last much longer anyway. We thought our courgette slaying days were over when we came back from holiday and found lots of huge marrows, but we cut them all off (they’re now in the garage until we need them) and in the last week or so the plants have been producing plenty more courgette. Hooray, because we certainly haven’t had our fill of them yet!
We knew the time would come, and it has – too many courgettes! These were all picked this morning, and I gave the really large one I picked to the hens. We haven’t had any rain, but somehow they just keep growing and growing. When they first start coming, you’re waiting and waiting for more, and then suddenly you have a flood of them. We’ve been frying them in olive oil for both lunch and dinner, but there are only so many you can eat this way. Our neighbours don’t want any because they’ve got plenty of their own. I’ve seen a nice recipe for courgette chutney and will be making that later on this week. I thought I’d share some recipes with you that we’ve found are really nice, and use up lots of courgette!
Our courgette are really getting into their stride now. We’ve got 5 plants and are picking courgettes most days. We’re growing two different varieties, Striato d’Napoli are the stripy ones, and the one in the middle is Defender, an F1 variety that we’ve grown before. Both are delicious. It’ll be interesting to see which variety produces more. We pick them quite small (about 5-6 inches long) because they really are at their best then. At least this is what we do at the start of the season. Somehow we always get overrun and end up picking them larger and larger as the summer progresses. Not this year though, and we are determined not to find a “hidden marrow” come September! Pick them small because they are delicious and beautifully firm (not like those large floppy things you get in the shops!). Growing your own always means that you get the best flavour and texture – we really are very fortunate as gardeners. We like our courgette fried in olive oil – yum! We’re hoping the rain is going to stop at some point so that we can pick and fry some clean courgette flowers as well. And this year, for the first time, 2 of our 4 children like them too!
Most Recent Comments