It’s Zucchini Season!

Hello lovely readers!

I haven’t looked after that blog very well but I’ll make an effort… For the record, I have moved house twice, built new (and better!) gardens, taken up more hobbies (pottery being one big one!) and stayed sane! The gardens have been planted out for Spring/Summer so it’s just a matter of maintaining and harvesting (which my little ones help with) at that point.

I have prepared a little image resuming how to grow Zucchini.

They are such prolific plants. I recommend planting at least one! The varieties I have in my garden are blackjack (the average dark green zucchini), yellow golden, cocozelle (stipe light green) and ronde de nice (little round zucchini).

The main disease issue is powdery mildew which is a fungus leaving a white residue on the leaves. To avoid that:

• Give them space: plant your zucchinis 1m apart.

• Be careful to only water the soil and not the leaves!

Cocozelle zucchini growing nicely!

Enjoy your harvest

Zucchini is a very versatile ingredient: baked, in soup, in tarts with goat cheese (yum!), in bread, as fritters etc…

Let me share a French recipe that I particularly enjoy….

The Tian - pronounced Tee-un(g)

Le tian provençal

Ingredients

• 3 cloves of garlic

• 2 onions

• 2 eggplants

• 2 zucchinis

• 3 tomatoes

Method

Preheat your oven at 180deg C.

In a pan, fry the onions, garlic in olive oil until soft. Then add them to an ovenproof dish. Spread the onion mixture evenly.

Slice the eggplants, zucchinis and tomatoes at about the same thickness (4-5mm). Arrange them successively: tomato/eggplant/tomato/zucchini/tomato etc. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and mixed herbs. Rosemary works fine too!

Cook for 40min. Enjoy!

It makes for a pretty dish celebrating the summer vegetables!

Preserving the harvest

I usually make lots zucchini slices, pre-cut them and freeze them. Easy to break off some pieces, what you need for a last minute lunch. I also freeze zucchini, cut into cubes (for soup making) or grated (for anything really!).

I do not like relying on the freezer though so I had to look up at waterbathing… The bread and butter pickle recipe, usually great for cucumbers, works a treat with zucchinis! It’s a very straightforward recipe. I’ll link it here.

You are welcome for the joke!

What are your favourite zucchini recipes?

Do you have favourite variety to grow?