Summer 2013 Gardening e-Log - Zucchini

This bright yellow flower is Zucchini.  I am not a big fan of zucchini.  However, for fun, I grew it from seeds last summer 2011. The results were not too bad. As I  did not have any spot where I could grow them, I did nott sow seeds this year.  One day however, I just woke up and  saw a small pumpkin -looking plant in the spot where I grew it before.  As days passed by It turned out to be zucchini.  I said WoW!  another 'no sweat' phenomenon in my gardening career!

Zucchini, the newest vegetable in my backyard, is an excellent source of vitamin C and since it is low in sodium, I think it is a perfect vegetable on my food table for a hypertensive person like myself.

It is amazing that each morning I always see this yellow flower smiling at me, asking to be picked to be cooked.  How do I cook it? In a variety of ways.   As I have a continuous supply of it day by day, I stuffed, microwaved, steamed, sauteed or, baked it.  

Unlike Huey, I stuffed the flowers with mushroom and tofu after which II pan fry, deep fry or bake it. Sometimes I mixed them with and julienne carrots and sweet potato, onions and garlic in a batter made of beaten eggs, wholemeal flour seasoned with pepper and then fry them as  fritters.

I am not quite sure if zucchini flowers are suitable for freezing so from the garden they end up straight to the pan.  ah, don't I live a good life?  I do! And---i have a lot of fun not only eating the flowers but also playing with them as shown in the two bottom pictures.

Zucchini and pumpkin flowers are practically very similar. In my observation, however zucchini's stems are spikier than pumpkin's.  This big yellow flower in my hair is zucchini's.  Below is that of pumpkin's.  The size I believe is not a good criterion.  In this instance, I think the difference in size may be attributed to the fertility of the soil.  The picture on the right shows the last two zucchinis I picked with other vegetables the end of summer 2011