Q I was given this cucumber – why are the fruits so strange?

JoHannuS witter, By email

A This is a courgette, whose fruit has grown into a large marrow. (Cucumbers have less indented leaves than this and are more straggly in habit.) To make sure courgette plants produce lots of small fruits ideal for steaming and stir-frying, it’s best to harvest them regularly while small. If a fruit is left to become large, the plants tend to stop cropping.