Showing posts with label Courgettes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Courgettes. Show all posts

Wednesday 31 August 2016

Zucchini.


My: Spaghetti squash — or vegetable spaghetti, Courgette Geode, Yellow courgettes.
Времена года / Four seasons: Courgette recipes.

- Zucchini Facts, Health Benefits and Nutritional Value

- How to Cook Spaghetti Squash - 4 Ways
Method: Pierce the squash several times with a sharp knife. (Do this especially if you're microwaving it, or you may end up with a "Squash Explosion.")
Bake about an hour in the oven at 375F/190C. (How To Cook Spaghetti Squash in the Oven — Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn | The Kitchn)
Microwave 10 to 12 minutes, then let stand for 5 minutes or so afterward to finish steaming.
Boil for half an hour or so.

Like pumpkin and other winter squashes, whole uncooked spaghetti squash is best stored between 10C - 15C, and will last up to six months this way.
If you have a room in your home that isn't well-heated, maybe you can use some space in it as a "root cellar" to store onions, squash, apples, and the like.
Our guest room often has vegetables on the bed in the cooler months of the year.
On the other hand, spaghetti squash will keep several weeks at room temperature.

Monday 30 May 2016

There’s still time to sow veg.

French,
borlotto and shelling beans,
beetroot,
carrots,
mini cauliflowers,
broccoli raab,
spigariello (a marvellous sprouting broccoli type, from Franchi Seeds),
kales,
salads and
the outdoor sowings of marrows,
pumpkins,
courgettes and
cucumbers can now be sown direct.

- How to grow perfect courgettes and squash | Alys Fowler | Life and style | The Guardian
This weekend is the perfect time to sow them if you haven’t already.
Cucurbits, whether that’s cucumbers or courgettes, squash or pumpkins, resent cold, wet weather and are easy targets for slugs.
If you have plants on the windowsill that can’t hold themselves upright, start again.
Floppy seedlings will be slug fodder and nothing more.

Plants sown in the next two weeks will catch up quickly with earlier sowings and crop just a beat behind.
Because the harvest season is short, make a further sowing at the end of the month to create a little succession.

It can be pricey to buy five or six different varieties: ask around and see if you can swap seeds.
Facebook often turns up someone who’s germinated the entire packet and is overrun.

Courgette plants love to eat and drink, so start feeding from midsummer onwards, particularly if growing them in pots.
It also worth mulching around plants to keep weeds down and water locked into the soil – grass clippings work well.

There are many varieties to chose from: round, long, bent, pattypan, pale green, sunshine yellow and stripy.
‘Midnight’ and ‘Patio Star’ are both compact bush plants, ideal for containers and tiny gardens.

Courgette ‘Tromboncino d’Albenga’ likes to climb and has attractive fruits; it’s great for arbours and trellis.
‘Eight Ball’ is a wonderful one for stuffing.
‘Nero di Milano’ makes a good, open bush plant and has early, dark green fruit.
‘Rugosa’ (from Seeds of Italy) and ‘Summer Crookneck’ (from The Real Seed Catalogue) are summer squash (essentially, they mature to have a harder skin), but, picked early, the wonderful, knobbly fruit have a great flavour and can be eaten like courgettes.

Saturday 16 May 2015

Marrows and Courgettes.

I bought plants and ready to plant!

Courgettes belong to the same family as cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins and marrows; in fact they are baby marrows.
Courgettes and zucchini are exactly the same plant but they acquired the different name from Italy from where it has found its way to America.
Although courgettes are small marrows the seed companies have been hard at work breeding plants that will only produce the smaller fruits that we want and not show bench monster marrows.
How to grow:
As the courgette plant grows it will produce a mass of white roots on the surface of the soil. Cover these with potting compost, garden compost or well-rotted manure. Keep covering the roots as they appear and gradually over the course of the summer the moat will disappear and the mound will spread outwards.
Jemmer F1 (AGM) - highly prolific on compact plants, bright yellow in colour.
El Greco – early cropping, excellent flavour, mid-green courgettes, RHS Award of Garden Merit.
Marrow Long Green Bush is the true traditional Marrow.
Has all the attributes of Green Trailing, but with a bush habit for more limited space.
Excellent flavour and highly productive.
Summer heading.

Handy Tip: Marrows and Courgettes prefer a deep humus rich soil for both the goodness and its water retention qualities.
Nutritional Value: A good source of pro-vitamin A, vitamins C and E.