Thursday, June 28, 2007

Zucchini Flowers

Donna, over at Mice and Moonbeams, is asking about her zucchini flowers. Here's a few pictures showing the difference between the male and female flower so you can act like a bee and pollinate your own :) Take your finger or a Q-tip and rub it all over the male, then simply rub it onto the female.

A male flower.

A female flower.

When the two get it together :)

I started a few in the greenhouse, that's why I'm seeing zucchini already. Eventually you will have an abundance, and you can only flog so many on your friends and family and then they start locking their car doors, so I'm posting my Aunty Bonnie's site because she has a couple of really good zucchini recipes. I also have a great zucchini loaf recipe right here at my blog, check it out :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Kansas! What lovely pictures! I think all of my flowers are the same...I think they are all males...or maybe all females.

Is that possible? I wonder if it is just too early (I did only get them planted a week before we left for vacation).

Well, I did the q-tip thing and it was LOADED with pollen. I even set it out on the table on the deck, hoping to lure some bees over! =)

We'll see what happens! =)

Anonymous said...

Hi Kansas......
I think "you learn something new everyday" is a real statement of truth. I have heard of pollinating vegetables by hand but I have never seen it quite like the raw naked pictures here tell it. :} Great pictures!

David T. Macknet said...

If you run into too many, you can always dehydrate them. The make great zucchini bread when you do, because they suck up all of the sweetness. We've had people ask if there were dates in the zucchini bread, because we made it from dried ones.

Anonymous said...

Davimack - what a great idea! Thanks for sharing! I'm writing down all these things so I don't forget...=)