Tuesday, August 06, 2019

A squash by any other name

The British use the French word: courgette. The Americans use the Italian word: zucchini. The Germans also use the Italian word. The Spanish use, well, I suppose it's a Spanish word: calabacín. And the Portuguese use the native Brazilian word: abobrinha.

Zucchini in our summer garden. It's a striped fruit, bush variety.

The zucchini originated in Mesoamerica but, according to Wikipedia, was developed into the modern summer squash we recognize in northern Italy.  Whatever you call it, I think zucchini is the definitive summer squash, ubiquitous, productive, and versatile. Bon appétit !

8 comments:

  1. We have 0 courgettes/zucchini this year. The vines have developed. THere are flowers. But whatever fruit starts, it quickly stops and dries out. That, in spite of watering. I'm sure that as soon as we leave home for a short vacation, later this month, there will be ripe ones that will ripen beyond reason!

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  2. I'm moving to Britain, where I won't have to worry about how to spell zucchini. Or zuchinni? Or zucchinni?

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  3. I remember growing these; they grow overnight into monsters.

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  4. Most years, they grow so big and so fast that you have to get rid of them by sneaking around the neighborhood in the dead of night in order to leave some on people's doorsteps. And hope that you don't meet the neighbors doing the same to you.

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  5. And we love to cook it down and season it with salt, milk-thinned sour cream and lots of fresh dill.

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  6. ellen, I read that the cause of that might be insufficient pollination. The fruit start to form but then stops and shrivels. They recommended pollinating by hand. I'm getting good fruit, but also some of the duds, so I might try it.

    mitch, and tasty, too!

    judy, hehe!

    michael, that they do. I've been trying to get them picked before that happens. It's easier with the bush variety as it's harder for the squash to hide under leaves until it's too late.

    emm, I reduced the number of plants to two this year to avoid just that.

    thickethouse, that sounds good!

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  7. Interesting about the pollination. I wouldn't have thought of that because we do have bees busying themselves in the garden. And the tomatoes seem to be doing fine.

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