In a few weeks we'll be picking an abundance of cucs. daily!
I know some folk manage to grow cucumbers around here in their back yards without any form of covering/temperature control but we can only guess their yards or a particular spot there in present a good little micro-climate for their cucumbers to grow well. The farm is much more open than that and because we rotate crops, we couldn't keep replanting them in the same location year after year even if we did have a specially protected location outdoors.
We planted the zucchinis back in November and they have just started to fruit.
A zucchini plant.
Small zucchini with flower (female) still intact.
See the male flower in the background.
Zucchinis are also know by their French name 'courgette' in some European countries, NZ & the U.K..
They are actually a summer squash. They can be yellow, green or light green but we are only growing the dark green ones this season. They are rich in vitamin C and other anti-oxidents.
They have gorgeous golden, edible flowers (more about that another time). Botanically, the zucchini fruit is considered to be the 'swollen ovary' attached to the female flower. The flowers occurring on stalks without zucchinis are the male flowers. Plenty of bees are needed for pollinating zucchinis for the squash to be produced and to grow healthily. The bees pollinate from the male flowers to the female flowers, fertilising the seeds in the immature fruit. If the seeds aren’t pollinated, the plant won’t waste energy growing a
non-viable fruit, so it just withers and drops off, and the plant tries again with
a fresh flower.
Anyone who has ever grown zucchinis or cucumbers for that matter, knows they go mad with very quick growing fruit (& can be master camouflage artists!). Unless you want large gourd-type zucchs. and cucs., you really need to harvest them daily to get to the fruits before they become huge...one more day can result in zuch/cuc-a-saurus! Personally, we prefer the flavour of smaller-sized zucchs. and cucs..
So between the zucchs., the cucs. and then the tomatoes when they arrive in the next few weeks, we'll be busy each morning picking their fruits whilst it is at its best, ready for the chefs, local shops and of course our farmers' market stalls each week.
Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb…well here I am writing to you with my first Angelica Organic Farm blog entry…Mostly there’ll be news about on-farm life but like all enterprises, the ‘off-farm’ goings on are just as crucial to the operation and given what a marvellous experience it has been, I’d like to share with you a little about our cyber-journey to this point. 
I have found writing the content a very enjoyable and nurturing exercise, especially during the long cold, wet winter we’ve been having here in Daylesford. It has also fuelled my inspiration for the farm and our future dreams and goals, and as if a form of touchstone, in some ways has helped fuse our focus and activate our energy for the ensuing spring’s burgeoning action! I am imagining that writing regular blog entries will be a great way for me to continue this tonic and our wish is that you too will find interest and inspiration as you follow our farm’s life. So without further a-do I’ll start sharing with you about daily life running our family farm…
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