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What kind of zucchini is this?


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(Stop laughing, Doran, I am talking about a vegetable!)

 

Every year my mother brings me surplus from her garden. There are usually several baseball-bat sized zucchini. However, these are different from the zucchini I know. Their skins cook up tough and the texture is stringy like a winter squash and not tender. What are these and what can I cook with them?

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(Stop laughing, Doran, I am talking about a vegetable!)

 

Every year my mother brings me surplus from her garden. There are usually several baseball-bat sized zucchini. However, these are different from the zucchini I know. Their skins cook up tough and the texture is stringy like a winter squash and not tender. What are these and what can I cook with them?

 

 

 

What do you take me for? Baseball-bat sized zucchini are no laughing matter! :scared:

 

 

What color is this mystery zuke? Solid green? Striped? Pale green and a bit fuzzy? Any chance it is a gourd disguised as a squash? Any chance you could post a photo?

 

If it is a squash that has simply been picked too late, it's often best to grate it and cook it into breads or fritters of some sort.

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:smilielol5:

 

You know it's impossible to discuss ANYTHING with a straight face anymore.

 

They are about 18 to 24 inches long.

 

Oh horrors...my mind didn't even think about it. :D Wow, I really cut mine early then.

 

There's just no way of talking about this with a straight face. Oy.

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Oh horrors...my mind didn't even think about it. :D Wow, I really cut mine early then.

 

There's just no way of talking about this with a straight face. Oy.

 

 

But, particularly when you start off the discussion with the phrase "harvest when they are about 6". :blink:

 

 

 

Sounds to me like overgrown zucchini. Although the "stringy" part leaves me a little stumped.

 

 

 

 

Stop laughing. Now.

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Ok, talking about real zucchini here, and not the hypothetical kind, my gardening magazine last month said that zucchini should be picked when you can no longer indent it with your fingernail (as opposed to summer squash, which should be picked while you can still dent it with your nail).

 

But I don't know how long is too long to wait...guess it should be picked as soon as possible after the skin toughens.

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Ok, talking about real zucchini here, and not the hypothetical kind, my gardening magazine last month said that zucchini should be picked when you can no longer indent it with your fingernail (as opposed to summer squash, which should be picked while you can still dent it with your nail).

 

But I don't know how long is too long to wait...guess it should be picked as soon as possible after the skin toughens.

 

 

Then maybe this is zucchini, and maybe what I am expecting is more like a green summer squash? What is the flesh like? Is it white and stringy or more translucent and buttery-tender?

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... my gardening magazine last month said that zucchini should be picked when you can no longer indent it with your fingernail (as opposed to summer squash, which should be picked while you can still dent it with your nail).

 

 

I've never had zucchini like that. Any I've ever grown or bought has had a fairly soft skin along the lines of a summer squash.

 

I'm thinking if it is the size of a baseball bat that it has gotten too big.

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Ok, talking about real zucchini here, and not the hypothetical kind, my gardening magazine last month said that zucchini should be picked when you can no longer indent it with your fingernail (as opposed to summer squash, which should be picked while you can still dent it with your nail).

 

 

What do you do if you don't have fingernails because you bite them?!? icon_nervous.gif

 

:D

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I've never had zucchini like that. Any I've ever grown or bought has had a fairly soft skin along the lines of a summer squash.

 

I'm thinking if it is the size of a baseball bat that it has gotten too big.

 

I had a similar experience with yellow crookneck squash which I grew last year. The flesh was stringy and the skin was hard like a shell and inedible. I was expecting both to be tender. I did pick these at 6 to 8 inches long.

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Then maybe this is zucchini, and maybe what I am expecting is more like a green summer squash? What is the flesh like? Is it white and stringy or more translucent and buttery-tender?

 

Summer squash and zucchini have become interchangeable terms, but most farmers know them as two different crops. I'm not familiar with a recommendation that "our" zucchini ever be harvested when skins have toughened. I'd like to know more about that. The stringy part is still what leaves me scratching my head and thinking maybe this is some sort of gourd-thing.

 

Does it look like any of these?

 

070707g.jpg

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I had a similar experience with yellow crookneck squash which I grew last year. The flesh was stringy and the skin was hard like a shell and inedible. I was expecting both to be tender. I did pick these at 6 to 8 inches long.

One could almost slice crookneck squash with a butter knife. It should be thinner than cucumber skin. Maybe too much or not enough water/rain.

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Then maybe this is zucchini, and maybe what I am expecting is more like a green summer squash? What is the flesh like? Is it white and stringy or more translucent and buttery-tender?

 

I'm not an expert by any means, but I don't think there is any green summer squash--I think they're all yellow. I don't know about the color either...my experience with the two is that it seems that zucchini tends to be more tender, while summer squash seeds tend to be bigger. I had an overgrown summer squash this summer, and it was rock hard rather than stringy.

 

I would think, though, that a stringy zucchini would be too old.

 

Ok, I got my magazine out, and I think I misinterpreted something. It's an article called "Harvest Hints". It doesn't mention zucchini, it lists summer squash, then "winter squash", which is different from zucchini (duh, I knew that, sorry). So the time to harvest zucchini is probably the same for summer squash, "when you can easily dent the rind with your fingernail."

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Summer squash and zucchini have become interchangeable terms, but most farmers know them as two different crops. I'm not familiar with a recommendation that "our" zucchini ever be harvested when skins have toughened. I'd like to know more about that. The stringy part is still what leaves me scratching my head and thinking maybe this is some sort of gourd-thing.

 

Does it look like any of these?

 

070707g.jpg

 

Or it could be the one on the left. The skin is green and speckled like the round squash Phlox posted.

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Cindy, regular zucchini will get really big if not picked in time. Sounds like what you have.

 

They will never be "peak" because they have gone too far. If you do want to salvage them the best way is to cut them in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy flesh in the center and try to leave the "meatier" flesh closer to the skin. You can then "stuff" the squash with rice, tomatoes, herbs, garlic, meat, mushrooms, or what-ever, and bake them.

 

Bill

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Cindy, regular zucchini will get really big if not picked in time. Sounds like what you have.

 

They will never be "peak" because they have gone too far. If you do want to salvage them the best way is to cut them in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy flesh in the center and try to leave the "meatier" flesh closer to the skin. You can then "stuff" the squash with rice, tomatoes, herbs, garlic, meat, mushrooms, or what-ever, and bake them.

 

Bill

 

mmm...stuffed zucchini...

Stop that, Doran and Beansprouts! :lol:

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Cindy, regular zucchini will get really big if not picked in time. Sounds like what you have.

 

They will never be "peak" because they have gone too far. If you do want to salvage them the best way is to cut them in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy flesh in the center and try to leave the "meatier" flesh closer to the skin. You can then "stuff" the squash with rice, tomatoes, herbs, garlic, meat, mushrooms, or what-ever, and bake them.

 

Bill

 

That is how I usually cook them, but it isn't quite the same as when the flesh is tender and buttery.

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