Well my zucchini have a gazillion blooms but I have had only one zucchini so far! I have never had this happen before and have not really had pollination problems before. But could this be the problem? We are growing Raven F1 and Clarinette Lebanese. Honestly, i'd have had more to eat from these plants if I had stir-fried the blossoms. ;) The plants look very helathy otherwise. Missouri Z 5b
Well it takes two to tango so you must have both boys and girls blooming at the same time--then there has to be an agent to take the pollen from the boys to the girls,normally bees--but if there are not enough bees then you have to do it. Often one sex will appear first and nothing will happen until the other arrives so there may be a period of bloom of one sex only so check the sex situation
Sure--one can assume that anyone exposed to elementrary biology can tell the boys from the girls--of couse if you do not want to peer too close the female has a tiny proto squash at the base of the flower stem
OK. :)
You can freeze zucchini, btw: don't bother to peel, just shred it, then freeze it. Last year, I blanched some and then didn't blanch some - and I think the unblanched was actually better. So I wouldn't bother to blanch it.
You can use the thawed zucchini shreds (after squeezing out most of the water or letting them drain in a colander) in this recipe, or in zucchini bread, cake, or muffin recipes.
This recipe calls for one zucchini and one summer squash, but you can obviously use two zucchinis instead. It won't make much difference.
Pat
------------------------------------------------------- VEGGIE BURGERS WITH ZUCCHINI
2 cloves garlic (grated) 1 onion (grated) 2 carrots (shredded) 1 small zucchini (shredded) 1 small summer squash (shredded) 2 teaspoons olive oil 1 1/2 cups rolled oats 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1 beaten egg 1 tbs soy sauce (tamari is much better!) 1 1/2 cups flour(note: this is the recipe as we found it and we immediately modified it. To our taste it was better with lots more onion. It held together better with two eggs.)
-Heat garlic and onion in olive oil over low heat for 5 minutes.
-Add squash, zucchini, and carrots and heat for 2 more minutes.
-Remove from heat and add oats, cheese, and egg.
-Add soy sauce or tamari.
-Refrigerate for 1 hr.
-Dredge patties in flour. Broil or fry as usual. Or bake them on an oiled cookie sheet.
Thank you very much for your response to my little joke. Alas, I missed elementary biology, but I still think sexing zucchini's is funny. I'm going out there right now to start pulling their underpants down. Jane
The zukes don't think it's funny but it is fun,
Raven is the variety I'm having problems with too. But in my garden the female flowers arrived weeks before the male, which are still in short supply.
But the tips still appear to be being eaten by ants - I put out ant traps and sprayed with Neem yesterday.
On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 04:25:01 GMT, "Jane" wrote in rec.gardens.edible:
Turn them upside down and shake them. If they rattle they are boys.
-- Gardening Zones Canada Zone 5a United States Zone 3a Near Ottawa, Ontario
LOL. Apparently, the female has a swelling at the base of the flower.
We immediately checked our upon hearing this fact and discovered that only one flower of maybe 40-50 is female! Yikes! What's the deal? Stir-fried squash blossoms are sooooooo good.
Oh thanks for posting that! I can hardly wait to try it...... that is if our courgettes decide to produce any female flowers. :)
While not breathtakingly wonderful , we both like it and consider it an acceptable entree for a dinner or lunch.
We usually eat the burgers in a bun, with salsa, lettuce and tomato.
Since you say 'courgettes', I think maybe you're in the UK? In which case, I'd expect salsa to be hard to find. Maybe some chutney would go nicely instead.
Pat
Cathy, where do you garden? The reason I ask, is because, here in eastern Va. USA, I have seen very few honeybees, since 1997. At first those who know were saying that it was a long cold spring, but later it was discovered that it was mites. Now they are rarer than hens teeth, but this year, I have seen more.
Nope.. right here in Missouri 5b. But up in Madison where we used to live, they often called them "courgettes".
LMAO!!! I think I need to go get a wet rag to clean the Pepsi off my screen.
Philip
wrote in
I know! Here in eastern Missouri, they have been practically non-existent aside from beekeeper hives since like 96-97. So we were so surprised to see them. We have seem them every day for the last week. What a pleasant sight :)
Being we are in about the same climate, in the same country, Let's pray they Africanized. Len
Excuse me, I meant, Lets pray they are not Africanized bees. Len
LOL I was wondering there for a minute. And, you know, when I first saw them and noticed that one was rather aggressive, I had precisely the same thought!
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