Tiny courgettes

Evening all.

I'm pleased to report that several of our courgette plants are laden with tiny immature courgettes. Currently, they're about 2 inches long by maybe half to 3/4 inch thick.

A couple of questions if I may.

1. How long til they're likely to be ready?

2. Can we eat them while they're still small, or are they bitter/poisonous or anything before they're mature?

3. If we can eat them while they're still immature, will it encourage the plant to keep producing more, or will it do it harm?

Cheers

Oh, and I can't stop myself mentioning, I had my first garden sourced snack of the year last night. I pulled an onion, picked some basil out of the greenhouse, and some leaves off my leaf beat, and had a most excellent salad sarny

 

Am I wrong in thinking that GC has taken you down this edible plants slippery slope Dave?

Fantastic Cut they Corgettes as soon as they look big enough to eat & keep cutting them. When they get too much to handle, Marley has got a quick pickle recipe wich is to die for. Still eating those from 2 years ago, it makes them into a different aninmal

 

Of course GC has helped loads, particularly in giving me confidence to have a go at stuff I 'traditionally' haven't bothered with, but I've done the easy edibles for years and years. In particular spuds, peas and various herbs. This is certainly my first year of having a serious bash at it though. I've taken a different approach this year, deciding not to segregate edibles from ornamentals, so in the newly created flower beds I have some spuds, strawbs, leaf beet, beans, onions, brussels sprouts, a few fruit bushes, and an apple tree. Then in the new greenhouse I have various flowering plants coming along, as well as courgettes, tomatoes and basil.

I'm not on course to achieve my objective growing all our own fruit and veg this year, but I'm doing alright I think, and will manage more next year when I've finally got the bottom end of the garden sorted and in use.

Anyway, are we saying that the tiny courgettes are ok to eat? Its the 'big enough to eat' bit that confused me

 

Sorry, nothing wrong with eating the tiny corgettes, not poisonous, but leave them a few days and they will suprise you

 

Excellent. I might harvest a few tomorrow, the wife is threatening to make her spaghetti bolognese for tea, which basically means sickening amount of mince on top of overcooked spaghetti. I can appease her by taking over in the kitchen, in which case the bulk of the sauce is veg and herbs rather than mince, the sauce has some flavour, and we don't all get heartburn afterwards. Courgette usually goes in it when I do it.

 

Just a wild guess , but I bet Mrs Clueless doesn't read this forum.
Otherwise you will be the mincemeat on top of the soggy spaghetti

 

On the contrary, I often show her what I've written. I've always liked them feisty and it does them good to be wound up from time to time. Although she still hasn't forgiven me yet for telling my mates the soup story two years ago.

 

If any are miss-shapen and rude looking, it's very important to cut them off immediately, then take pictures and post them on here.

 

I reminded of a song:

 

Thread High Jack
Everyone refers to cutting the courgette off, not pulling twisting or whatever

Question, Do you cut the courgette off, if so where, just before the fruit, on the stem. or on the bud bit?

Jack McH

 

There's no story really, its a storm in a teacup type of thing. I once had to start early and finish late at work, and had no time for a proper lunch so by the time I got home, I was tired and so hungry I could have eaten my own left arm. Wife did me a tin of chicken soup for tea. Later that evening, a mate phoned to see if I was coming out for a pint, and during the brief conversation I might have mentioned that I'll be there in half an hour, as I have to make myself a sarny first, having only been fed a tin of soup. Wife came out with us, and my mate, who is a proper wind up merchant, put on his most serious face and told my missus you can expect to feed a grafter a tin of soup. I nearly choked on my beer, expecting her to also see the funny side of it too, but she didn't.

 

I've never grown them before, but when I harvest them, I'll be cutting them off, just because the plants look a bit delicate so I don't want to bust them.

 

If I cut them I do so in the short "stem" (its only an inch or so long) between the plant and the fruit, but mostly I twist them, but there is a risk of breaking the plant ahead of the fruit itself.