A couple of courgette questions

I don't mess with the flowers anymore, I found it made no difference and they eventually start to produce females when they see fit.

I like them all sizes, mostly small 4 to 6 inches. I eat the small ones raw in salads prior to my cucumbers coming on-stream, they are nice young - try one and see for yourself. The medium sized ones get sliced and fried. The bigger ones can be a bit woody so I don't use many of these and leaving them to get too big will trigger the plant into thinking it has done it's work and will stop fruiting. The more you cut, feed and water the more you'll get, the plants don't have a fixed number of fruit they are programmed to produce.

 

I agree totally with @JWK but we do have a use for larger ones (even those that have been hiding and are of marrow size) as we use them as a thickener in cream of veggie soups.

We have a lot of soups, even in the summer, and at this time of year we add them to almost any veggie soup we are making. The soups only take minutes to make. I made one earlier this morning using a large broccoli and a large courgette, chopped into chunks, barely covered with water and cooked until just soft (don't cook broccoli too long otherwise the green colour goes a khaki colour), added half a tin of 60% coconut milk and brought back to the boil with some veggie stock granules (to taste). Then whisked into a cream type soup with a hand blender. Total time about 20-25 minutes.

We shall be having it for lunch with guests coming today. It can be served hot (my preference) or chilled. It is good for freezing but may needed whisking again when reheated.

The method works well with all veggies - even with tomato soup.

 

Mine are covered in mildew right now, it doesn't seem to harm them.

 

It's usually the male flowers that are used. They are normally larger with more petal that furls around itself and is a longer lasting flower (the female flowers on the fruit tend to go over very quickly). If you pick them whilst they're tightly furled there is less chance of insects being in them. The courgettes can then be stuffed with a mixture that uses courgette, ricotta, herbs etc. and there will be plenty of recipes on the net. They are dipped in a light batter (preferably tempura) and fried.

The flowers of the tromboncino courgette are a favourite in some parts of Italy.

 

We have tried courgette flowers in the past, not nice in a salad but battered and fried are ok but so is anything and perhaps not the healthiest for us anyway.