ZUCCHINI
 

TO complete my search for Mediterranean/Middle Eastern approaches to recipes that include peppers, eggplant and zucchini, I am totally flummoxed, stymied and confused by the zucchini seed choice.

I absolutely despise those with hard skins, seediness even when young, or that overwhelmingly intense (almost bitter) zucchini flavor. Maybe I'm just spoiled by a lifetime of summer crookneck deliciousness, but I need something that will stand up to sautés and frying without falling apart.

That's my conundrum. I want something that will be sweet while not falling apart or overwhelming a dish. Something to complement

I have seen a refer to some regions using Cousa squash, but have no knowledge of that at all.

SO, considering all of the above, what variety would you select? The black varieties and deep green ones have always seemed too strong. Is there one with flavor and sweetness that will not need peeling, while standing up to sautéing and adding to the other flavors?

If you're willing to accept "nuttiness" as part of the flavor profile, look at the Italian varieties Striato d'Italia or Cocozella. They have tender skin, dense flesh, and they grow in more of a bush fashion than vining so they take up less space. If you want a hybrid option, then Green Tiger is comparable to both.

I love Lebanese white: soft, pale, fragile skin and creamy, less mushy meat.

Coosa is one that I enjoyed. Give it a try.

Jon

Sheer frustration...
My wife kindly drove me out on a quest for the varieties mentioned. Unfortunately, all we could find in a 15 mile radius were the seed racks in the "big box" stores close by were those of Ferry Morse and Burpee. On those they had the same two or three we have seen forever. By then my joints and vertebrae were screaming fro each little crack or bump in the road. Another day and another quest! At least I can get the flats ready.

Why not through an online shop? The Lebanese zucchini is sold by rareseeds.com and a couple of other shops. I try to shop in 'real' shops, with real people and not in chains or online. But with seeds it is not always easy to find a big diversity. Oftentimes I buy them online.

I almost never buy seeds in a store - the good online companies are so much better stocked and they know what they are doing.
As for varieties with the characteristics you describe, I really like Costata Romanesca from High Mowing and Cocozelle from Fedco. The important thing with any zucchini is to pick them really small. I don't let mine get more than 8"-10" long. Bigger than that, and they are fit to be grated for bread, but not much else, in my view.
An interesting revelation for me was a vining squash called Tromboncino, which does best on a trellis. It grows over three feet long, but only about 2" in diameter, like a really stretched out butternut squash, if you let it, but if you pick it at 12"-15" long, it rivals the best zucchini in flavor, but with a firmer, less mushy texture, and only a few seeds at the bulb end. If you do let it get big, it will mature into a nice winter squash with solid, light orange, tasty flesh. It seems to be available from a wide variety of online sources, including Baker Creek, Territorial, and Fedco.

We still have plenty of time here, so if I cannot find them when my wife heads out and passes a nursery about 20 miles away, I will have to try the online route.

[QUOTE=mensplace;685124]We still have plenty of time here, so if I cannot find them when my wife heads out and passes a nursery about 20 miles away, I will have to try the online route.[/QUOTE]

Let me know if you'd like to try Raven, Dark Star, or Midnight Lightening- I'd be happy to put some in the mail tomorrow.

kath

Unfortunately the box stores are very limited. Mostly hybrids, rarely an old vareity.

Definitey a huge and better selection on line. Check several sources before buying.
Otherwise, to keep the form of the summer squash I add at the end or near the end of the cooking. Holds its form better

do you have a feed store by chance? sometimes they have a selection you don't expect. we have a couple of them around here. One a bona fide feed store another an Amish boot shop withing a grocery store/restaurant down in Kidron, Oh and a material supply place... building materials, work clothes, garden stuff etc... check any places like that if you have any close. If I had some I would just send them to you. or a drug store/carry all store with a seed rack from Livingstons seeds. they are all open pollinated and you might find some one one of those.

Caserta was a favorite of 2017 -- it stands up well to cooking without turning mushy, is not bitter, and is not thick-skinned. It does have a tendency to double in size on rainy days, but that's zucchini, I suppose.

Thanks to all for your wonderful recommendations!

[QUOTE=FarmerShawn;685114]I almost never buy seeds in a store - the good online companies are so much better stocked and they know what they are doing.
As for varieties with the characteristics you describe, I really like Costata Romanesca from High Mowing and Cocozelle from Fedco. The important thing with any zucchini is to pick them really small. I don't let mine get more than 8"-10" long. Bigger than that, and they are fit to be grated for bread, but not much else, in my view.
An interesting revelation for me was a vining squash called Tromboncino, which does best on a trellis. It grows over three feet long, but only about 2" in diameter, like a really stretched out butternut squash, if you let it, but if you pick it at 12"-15" long, it rivals the best zucchini in flavor, but with a firmer, less mushy texture, and only a few seeds at the bulb end. If you do let it get big, it will mature into a nice winter squash with solid, light orange, tasty flesh. It seems to be available from a wide variety of online sources, including Baker Creek, Territorial, and Fedco.[/QUOTE]
Good recommendations, and I concur.

Personally, I switched from zucchini to Tromboncino many years ago, chiefly because of its resistance to SVB... but I would never go back. Tromboncino is a vining squash, and takes up a lot of space if you let it (I let mine ramble) but it is also a strong climber, and can be trellised. The yield is not as high as zucchini grown in the same space; but then - at 12-24" long immature - a single squash serves two people. 90% of that length is seedless, solid flesh, with no mushy interior. I mostly blanch & freeze the seedless portion; it turns a beautiful lime green when blanched, and freezes well... I use the bulb end for fresh eating. The texture is a little less firm than green zucchini, the flavor is mild, somewhere between green zucchini and yellow crookneck... quite pleasant. In a dish, it absorbs flavors well.

+1 for the Costata Romanescu and Cocozelle - they are the best of the really large zucchini, being both very firm and very sweet tasting never bitter for us. You'll get a big crop from those. There are many meals in one CR.

I'm a kousa fan, if you can get it, try Magda F1. Still looking for an OP to rival the taste. The squash are not large and best harvested before they do get large, but they are very tasty whether cooked or raw. "Nutty" yes.

I did also quite like Bianca de Trieste, which is a vining type and can be trellised as well. Much smaller than the others and a bit prone to rots on the blossom end that spoil the taste, at least when growing on the ground here in my climate. We don't always have the kind of summer that squash like.

My absolute favorite is a yellow zucchini called Butta. It is extremely productive and the plant gets quite large even though it is a bush type. The biggest bonus is that it will get quite large before having much if anything in the way of seeds and the outer skin remains tender until it is quite large or old. I usually plant three plants and give away most of the squash because it produces far more than we can eat. I keep SVBs away by dusting the base of the stem with Sevin dust.

Bill

Raven?
 

[QUOTE=kath;685130]Let me know if you'd like to try Raven, Dark Star, or Midnight Lightening- I'd be happy to put some in the mail tomorrow.

kath[/QUOTE]

Hi, I ordered Raven Zucchini this season. Did Raven do well in your garden? It is hard to grow Summer squash here. I have hopes for Zucchini this year.

I am a "Kath" also! ;):D

I really like mini-zucchini.
[IMG]https://sortseeds.ru/data/catalog_pic/1478769260.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://irmag.ru/media/cache/catalog_element_popup/uploads/files/2018/02/26/300d8d667e2d53c20c1cc3895b468ce27bcddf02.jpeg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=tarpalsfan;686641]Hi, I ordered Raven Zucchini this season. Did Raven do well in your garden? It is hard to grow Summer squash here. I have hopes for Zucchini this year.

I am a "Kath" also! ;):D[/QUOTE]

Hi, Kath!

Raven has been in my garden for at least 8 years and has beat out the competition for earliness, compactness, dark color, taste, resistance to mushiness when cooked, and resistance to early death from bugs/disease...until last year when Midnight Lightning, which, although a larger plant, was still relatively well behaved and was the earliest by a few days, more productive and outlasted Raven by weeks. Another trial between those two along with Dark Star for 2018.

kath

[QUOTE=kath;686860]Hi, Kath!

Raven has been in my garden for at least 8 years and has beat out the competition for earliness, compactness, dark color, taste, resistance to mushiness when cooked, and resistance to early death from bugs/disease...until last year when Midnight Lightning, which, although a larger plant, was still relatively well behaved and was the earliest by a few days, more productive and outlasted Raven by weeks. Another trial between those two along with Dark Star for 2018.

kath[/QUOTE]


If I might ask, does this mean you dont have a problem with that bug (larval stage)that drills thru the vine at the base????

[QUOTE=Black Krim;687331]If I might ask, does this mean you dont have a problem with that bug (larval stage)that drills thru the vine at the base????[/QUOTE]

Yes, we have squash vine borers, but it's hit and miss as to whether or not the plants go down. I get a few started really early and also succession plant them, so that helps. Some years we get more zucchini than others, but many times we have them until fall.

I was hoping you had another variety that was immunt to the vine boror like the butternut squash.

[QUOTE=Black Krim;687388]I was hoping you had another variety that was immunt to the vine boror like the butternut squash.[/QUOTE]

Wouldn't that be great?! Sadly, no- zucchini's are the only other squash I try to grow other than butternut for that very reason. Everything else takes too long to mature and I never get ripe fruit from them before they die.

I've had borers in my plants every year, but still had successful zucchini harvests. Check the vines every day for frass, and the moment you find any dig out the borer by cutting through the vine the long way and squash(!) it. Then pile dirt over the vine at the surgery site.

I've learned that as long as the vine is not completely severed, the plant will continue to grow like nothing happened. And, if I eliminate all the early borers, I don't have any more problems with them as the season progresses.

used to be a tar mixture used for sealing grafts. bet that would help around the bottom, especially if dusted with malathion gasp!

How about BT instead???

I was thinking about giving a dusting to the stem to get thru the prime borer season. From what I have read, after the moths lay their eggs for the season, the moths die and that is the end of laying for the season. Just the maggot to deal with.

Sealing a wound with dirt seems counter-intuitive. My thought when I have read covering the cut with soil in a number of places is, dang, doesnt that intro disease into the wound?

Mensplace-- have you actually used tar?? Perhas any grafting goop would work???

What I suggest is a very thin paintable solution that dries instantly and comes in a small, yellow, plastic jar with brush inside that is easy to use. Used to be folks used beeswax and rosin that had to be heated. That would kill the plant. I was thinking of a thick, sealing effect that would be easy to use. The malathion was just for an instant kill additive after the paint.

I went to the local store today, and they had frozen bags of spiral cut Zuchini , kinda like spaghetti squash. Right next to a frozen bag of "riced" cauliflower ...

[QUOTE=mensplace;687511]What I suggest is a very thin paintable solution that dries instantly and comes in a small, yellow, plastic jar with brush inside that is easy to use. Used to be folks used beeswax and rosin that had to be heated. That would kill the plant. I was thinking of a thick, sealing effect that would be easy to use. The malathion was just for an instant kill additive after the paint.[/QUOTE]

That is the stuff Im looking for !!!! For the tree grafting, but I can see it would work nicely to seal the wound on the sqaush vine. Great idea.

Watched a fellow use hot wax to seal after grafting, and I said "ouch" just watching the graft recieve that hot wax.

[QUOTE=pmcgrady;687558]I went to the local store today, and they had frozen bags of spiral cut Zuchini , kinda like spaghetti squash. Right next to a frozen bag of "riced" cauliflower ...[/QUOTE]

The price put a spiral maker on my wish list.:))