Courgette wine it will have to be then!

Sue with a couple of oversize courgettes

 



Tuesday 18th September 2012

 

Wednesday 19th September 2012












Yesterday evening we went into the Lincolnshire Wolds to pick up 19 demijohns. That should tide us through for a while. At 4lbs of courgettes for 1 gallon of wine, the 32lbs that I picked today should use about 8 demijohns!

 

Yes, that's right. 32 lbs! To Sue's delight I presented her with another three baskets of courgettes in their various shapes and colours. Some ridiculously overgrown as a couple of downpours recently have brought on a fresh spate of logarhithmic growth!

The varieties of courgette which I have grown this year came from the Mr Fothergill's Courgettes and Summer Squashes Collection.

Black Beauty, Grisette de Provence, Di Nizza, Patty Pan, Golden Zucchini and Yellow Scallop.

The most prolific have been the Grisette de Provence, though they tend to grow fat and quickly reach a large size. However, the flesh stays firm and it's easy enough to scoop out the middle so that, even overgrown, they are great for stuffing like marrows. They've a good taste too. Similar are the Di Nizzas. A couple of these have attained the size of a medium pumpkin! The Black Beauties have cropped more modestly, but they are a very good looking courgette (though mine are not so dark, having a pleasing dappled, striped appearance.) The Golden Zucchinis (a pretty generic name for yellow courgettes) cropped very heavily early on and have a good, sweet taste along with a firm texture and a crunch to them. They are still cropping, but much more slowly now. Finally the Patty Pans have just started to produce fruits. They took me a bit by surprise so a few have reached the size of mini flying saucers! We'll see what the flesh is like in due course.

 

Some of the smaller pumpkins are ready now too. Fortunately these can stay on the plant much longer, as they just reach their full size then slowly ripen. But today I decided to pick a few of the dozens which are growing, just to see what they taste like and how ripe they are. Besides, they make a very colourful and exotic addition to the vegetable display in the Secret Shop.

 





Pumpkins and Squashes
are always fun to grow and harvest.



Ye secret shoppe.

 

The Potimarrons have grown and fruited profusely. They were the first to produce fruits and some have now ripened to a deep orangey red colour. They are a very convenient size for a meal for two and have a lovely, nutty taste.

The Jack-be-Little pumpkins were much slower to produce fruits, but each plant looks as if it will yield a hatful of fruits (and a big hat at that!).

 

Anyhow, back to that wine I was talking about. The recipe is at www.courgetterecipes.co.uk.



A modern kitchen, complete with laptop displaying recipe.

First, chop up lots of courgettes.

Then boil them in big pans.

Strain the juice into a very big bucket, along with other bits and pieces (see recipe)

As far as I remember, it stays about a week in the bucket then goes into demijohns, where it stays for about a year. By which time there will be plenty more courgettes to deal with!!