Cor! look at my courgettes

A tale of horticultural boom and bust from a north London allotment.

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by Gavin Lumsden on Jul 24, 2010 at 00:01

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A tale of horticultural boom and bust from a north London allotment.

It is a little known fact in these parts that I am a keen, if very amateur gardener.

With a back garden the size of a bus ticket it took getting an allotment near where I live in north London three years ago for me to discover my green fingers (as well as a brilliant excuse for getting out of the house at the weekend).

I still regard myself as a novice horticulturalist, however, as my delight at recently harvesting this collection of courgettes proved.

Aren't they super?

I thought so too, at first. Unfortunately, it turned out these marrow wannabees had skins that tasted of wood and seeds the size of almonds - which rendered my ratatouille inedible and made stuffing them a laborious and messy process too.

This is still a financial website so I should try to draw monetary lessons from my experience.

Here are two.

First, watching the wonderful courgette plants flower and produce these rapidly swelling vegetables is surely akin to the amazing power of compound interest. Money left to accumulate interest and dividends over time can also swell to enormous sizes. Geddit?

Second, take your profits. I should have nipped in earlier when the courgettes were an eighth of the size and tasty as well as dainty.

As the professionals say, always leave something on the table for the next investor!

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3 comments so far. Why not have your say?

Yes, I too am an amateur gardener and it is an amazing feeling of satisfaction watching your veggies produce. A tip ref courgettes - normally you will get too many so there is no problem either eating them very young with the flower still on or as courgettes. However, we also like to eat stuffed marrow from time to time so you can also leave a few.

I am into investing over the long term - 5 years minimum - so I think a gardening analogy here would be strawberries. We put in a load of v. small plants and, over the last four years, these have produced in abundance - in fact, we got 110 kilos last summer! So, a good return on our initial investment over the longer term.

Also, I would advice anyone to watch 'Being There' with Peter Sellars for gardening-economy analogies!

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Ref: Courgettes & Marrows,

Personally I prefer marrows, but I do not grow or prepare them for the table in the same way as I would for courgettes. First and foremost to get tender fruits, they must grow quickly, which means loads of farmyard manure or garden compost and constant watering. With regard to preparation; I cut into 2" 2.5" sections, liberally remove all the skin, cut sections in half, cut away all of the seed pod inside, so that you are left with semi-anular fleshy pieces. Put into saucepan, add hot water and a teaspoon of salt, Boil for ten minutes until really soft. Strain off water by gently pressing. Garnish with a little pepper and serve with braised steak and new potatoes.

Oh! A word of warning with regard to harvesting. Hopefully your marrow plant flowers will not all "set" at the same time so that you can cut and come again. Take a sharp knife which is not too small, wear a long sleeved garment and gloves. Marrow plant stems and leaves have barbed hairs which can cut into your arm or hand and leave behind a poison. I found out the hard way with an outbreak of dermatitis.

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colin macdermott

Jul 24, 2010 at 15:15

On the other hand you could bore a hole in the side and siphon in a sugar water and yeast mix stick a trap on it rock gently for 2/52 strain the liquid off into a fermenting jar and watch it clear in a warm cupboard.in a year or less very refresing.

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