I say zucchini
Whatever name you use, this prolific fruit has many uses
Inever thought I’d have a garden bed full of courgettes, zucchini or whatever you want to call them, but this year’s raised bin filled up faster than I thought and my courgette plants had nowhere to go. They love it in the flower garden and are already producing tiny yellow fruit.
I’d probably never even planted them if I’d only known them as curcubits. Cucurbit is short for cucurbitaceae and it’s a plant group that includes zucchini, squash, cucumbers, melons and more. That it sounds like something belonging to the innards of the latest model cellphone rather than a vegetable garden doesn’t help it any, but what’s in a name?
Well, Auntie Google says cucurbitaceae is a family of chiefly herbaceous tendrilbearing vines that are characterised by an inferior ovary and anthers, usually united. How very sexy.
And the common names? The term courgette is ‘relatively French’ and describes fruit that are smaller and younger, whereas zucchini, of Italian origin, describes fruit that are older and bigger in size.
I love all things French and Italian so I’ve tossed a coin and we’re calling them zucchini today. Zucchini would have to be one of the most productive crops we grow over summer and just a couple of plants will keep you well supplied. In fact unless you’re unusually fond of them, you’ll probably be giving them away.
They’re easy to grow, no question, but even so, it’s hard not to feel clever when you see their big, bright yellow flowers. You can actually eat the flowers, but I prefer the fruit.
They’re lovely to eat fresh and raw when they’re little and look gorgeous in salads, they can hold their own barbecued or roasted whole in the company of colourful capsicums, and they make the best ever fritters for the barbecue, served with a squeeze of lemon and a dollop of aioli.
You can plant them right now — just find a sunny spot, space them a metre apart and give them lots of compost.
Mulch them and keep them well-watered and pick them when they’re really little — no bigger than 15cm.
Don’t just go for the tried and true dark green variety — there are several skin/ flesh colour combinations to try. Cocozelle is a striped pale green with green/white flesh, Costata Romanesco is grey/green with white flesh, Florence long ribbed is flecked green, Gold Rush F1 is yellow and mid green with creamy flesh, Italiano is stripey mid green, Rampicante (great name) is yellow and green with yellow flesh, and Zephyr F1 is yellow dipped in green.
If you’ve gone nuts and planted too many, start every day with a zucchini smoothie. Blend together 1-1/2 of unsweetened almond milk, teaspoon cinnamon, a banana, preferably frozen, 1 cup zucchini, 1 cup spinach and a dollop of plain yoghurt. Mess around with the ingredients until it’s perfect for you.
Zucchini is full of skin-friendly vitamins (A, E and C) so you can also make use of it to give your skin a lift — it makes a great face mask. Grate a zucchini and mix two tablespoons with 1 tablespoon of oatmeal flour. Spread the mixture over your clean face and leave it on for about 15 minutes. Rinse off with warm water. It’s good for oily skin.
For dry skin, add an egg yolk and a teaspoon of olive oil to the mix.