Baby marrow is such a versatile vegetable that is actually a
fruit. In culinary terms the marrow, zucchini or courgette, is treated as a
savoury dish but botanically it is a fruit.
I suppose what you call them depends on one’s country of
origin. It originates from the Americas but the cylindrical and harvested
immature “zucchini” were developed in northern Italy. This was after the
introduction of cucurbits from the Americas. Zucca is the Italian word for
pumpkin or squash and ‘ina’ is ‘little’, so together it is ‘little squash’.
As its name suggests, the baby marrow can be prepared in
many ways. For this reason, it is a standard fruit/vegetable in the Towerwater
garden. The speed at which the fruit develops is astounding. It is as if the
fruit develops overnight. In the space of one week, the fruit gets quite big
and I end up with teenage marrows.
It is still a luxury to harvest the dark-green beautiful
fruit. In their more mature state they remain soft and buttery- delicious.
Roasted, they add a soft buttery smokiness to a Sunday salad enjoyed under the
oaks at Towerwater.
I might not always be able to harvest the marrows as babies
but grown-up they are still delicious, roasted or any other way…
Lovely post thanks. The marrows are a treat.
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