Zucchini...

[SweetMissDaisy]

Hi all!
I wandered over here from Backyard Chickens ... great to find you all!

I'm wondering, do many of you prune off any of the male flowers on your zucchini plants? Or do you just let them do their thing, without pruning?

We enjoyed our first zucchini of the season (got a late start planting)... it was delicious! And from the looks of things on the plants, we'll be enjoying a lot more zucchini! I've got some plants in large wooden picking baskets, and they're doing really well.

You can see my garden photos, etc. here:
http://sweetmissdaisy.typepad.com/sassy_sweet_notes/life_on_the_farm/

Tomorrow's dinner:

 

[hoodat]

The bees don't seem interested in my zuke flowers this year for some reason so I'm having to hand pollinate. That uses up almost all of my male flowers.
If you have enough extra flowers there are some great recipes out there for them.
The simplest is to saute chopped onion, celery and chopped green peppers along with garlic in either butter or olive oil and then mix that with Italian sausage or chorizo if you prefer Mexican style. Stuff the mix into the flowers, then dip in batter and deep fry. You may have to tie the petal tips to keep them closed while you fry. Another way is to just dip the flower alone in batter, deep fry and then sprinkle with powdered sugar for desert.
There are also great recipes for zuchini flower soup, either Italian or Mexican style but I don't have recipes for those handy. Google should turn some up.

 

[BlackThumb]

I removed my zucchini plants today. They have produced 6 to 24 fruit every day for about a month, and truthfully I have had enough zucchini for a while. They tumbled into adjacent garden beds, and when I dug them out, the producing stems were more than three feet long.

Now the acorn can get some sun, and the beans as well. I found a forgotten pepper in there as well!!!

On to the yellow crook and straight necks next ! I have thinned my butternut, although it killed me to do it. Eight plants with four squash each. They wanted to do more !

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi SweetMissDaisy,



I loved your blog & the photos are great. I hope you enjoy it over here ; we are a friendly bunch..........!! :happy_flower


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I have a dumb question. How can you tell which flowers are male and which are female? I have never been sure so I don't pick any of them.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

The female flowers are the ones with a swelling behind the flower, usually roundish -- also the stalks to the flower is a little shorter than that of the males.

Often when the plant starts to flower you get mostly, or all, male flowers & no females. I then remove about two thirds of these and cook the flower-heads ( either stuffing them or dipping in a light batter & then fry in olive oil) They are delicious. This should encourage the plant to produce female flowers !!! I always pick one of the male flowers & hand pollinate the first few females as often there are not a lot of bees/insects around early in the summer; later there seem to be more.


Hattie

 

[HunkieDorie23]

OK, thanks. My replacement zucchini looks like it will start to flower very soon so I will have something from the garden anyway.

So what do you stuff them with? I have heard of frying them but would look to try some stuffed. That sounds wonderful.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

OK, thanks. My replacement zucchini looks like it will start to flower very soon so I will have something from the garden anyway.

So what do you stuff them with? I have heard of frying them but would look to try some stuffed. That sounds wonderful.

Here's a few.....!! :happy_flower

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/crispedzucchiniflowe_7191

http://www.bradsproduce.com.au/recipes.htm

http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/VegHd/Herby Rice Stuffed Courgette Flowers Recipe.htm

http://italianfood.about.com/od/zucchiniflowers/Zucchini_Flowers.htm

I think that should be enough to keep you going for a while...!! :happy_flower

Happy Eating !

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

Thanks for the welcome, Hattie! I know I'll like it here -- the peeps on BYC are great, so I was excited to see there was a gardening specific forum, too!

Thanks, all, for adding to the thread with what you do with the male flowers. I think we'll give them a try. Beats just composting them.

We're FINALLY getting some rain here on the farm today -- they've been getting storms all around us for the past few weeks (sometimes even within a few miles of us), but we just get "sunny + 100" day after day. Today we've gotten some rain, and hopefully tomorrow we'll get more of the same. The corn and squash I planted on Sunday are just barely starting to break ground ... I'm grateful for today's cooler temps, rain, and the cooler temps in the coming week's forecast. Looks like I got those seeds in the ground at a good time!

Now if my pumpkin seeds would arrive, I could get those in the ground during this good weather, too!

Enjoy your day!!

 

[4grandbabies]

Hi all!
I wandered over here from Backyard Chickens ... great to find you all!

I'm wondering, do many of you prune off any of the male flowers on your zucchini plants? Or do you just let them do their thing, without pruning?

We enjoyed our first zucchini of the season (got a late start planting)... it was delicious! And from the looks of things on the plants, we'll be enjoying a lot more zucchini! I've got some plants in large wooden picking baskets, and they're doing really well.

You can see my garden photos, etc. here:
http://sweetmissdaisy.typepad.com/sassy_sweet_notes/life_on_the_farm/

Tomorrow's dinner:
http://sweetmissdaisy.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c2d2753ef013483a005c1970c-800wi

welcome here! I just took a tour of your website-garden vegs kittens chickens etc. Totally awesome. your plants look so healthy I just wanted to reach in and grab a zuchini for my grill. I split them, brush with olive oil, then sprinkle with basil, salt and pepper ..yumm. Ot looks like a bit of heaven at your place!