flowers plant nature
Squash Flower / Zuccinibluete

This year I got no One Balls but the oblong Soleil. Actually taste better and are preferable to handle portions, but blossoms look just the same. This is a shot from still before the Hailstorm when there where still 4 plants growing almost to profusely. / Dieses Jahr bauten wir keine One Balls sondern laengliche Soleil an. Die schmecken tatsaechlich zarter und sind einfacher zum portionieren. Vor dem Hagelschlag hatte ich 4 Pflanzen, die zu viel Fruechte fuer unseren Frischbedarf trugen.



10 comments so far...

Fizgig November 15, 2017, 01:44 AM
Looks almost identical to Zucchini blossoms, too.... Nice capture!
Sonja November 15, 2017, 02:55 PM
Summer Squash and Zuccini are the same after all, the stuff sold as Summer Squash has just yellow skinned fruits. Most autumn pumpkins got also blossoms just marginally differing, mostly in the size department.
The Soleil Summer Squash got nice blossoms that are fairly huge for a Zuccini but nicely tender and pointy. It is extra noted at some descriptions on the seed packages that they are rather neutral tasting and good looking eatables, great for decorating the salad platter just gently washed after collecting or to fry up dipped in liquid batter for use in a showy first course or desert, or clever vessel for condiment servings.
I never tried as my cooking style is not that hoity-toity, it is just as my husband and me realized that as we prefer juicy cubes in fast stir fries and pasta toppings over filled whole fruit from the oven in summer and spare the extra heat in the kitchen, buying an enlongated yellow squash that develops flavour earlier and seeds in pulp later seemed suddenly a bright idea, and we where not disapointed.
Fizgig November 15, 2017, 08:41 PM
Actually, the term "summer squash" encompasses both zucchini and yellow squash, so it's understandable why so many assume the two are exactly the same except for the shade of their skin. That's actually not true. Besides the color, the main difference between the two vegetables is the shape. Zucchini is straight, while yellow squash has a fat bottom and tapers towards the neck. Yellow squash can also have more seeds in its flesh. Flavor-wise, both are mild-tasting with a hint of vegetable sweetness.

I posted a picture of a Zucchini blossom fairly recently, and if you compare the two, there are actually subtle differences in the shape and color pattern of their flowers, too. If you compare the plants' leaves in your photo and mine, you can see clear differences... Definitely not the same plant! Although, I will say that in terms of cuisine, there are basically interchangeable -- with a few exceptions....

Sonja November 16, 2017, 11:21 AM
That is not what the garden center's guide says (all are cucurbita pepo as binominal according to Sperli brand that writes the latin name on the bag) and also the supermarket's "warenkunde" pages since you can get yellow squashes in grocery departments here (in Germany a very recent trend veggie still twice the price as green long zuccini) has a writeup saying they do not differ a lot.
https://www.edeka.de/rezepte-ernaehrung/expertenwissen/1000-fragen-1000-antworten/worin-unterscheiden-sich-gruene-und-gelbe-zucchini.jsp

Of course there are subtle differences, but those you can even have in two plants from the same bag. I once was silly enough to safe seeds from the One Balls instead of buying new seeds for spring at the store and I can tell you, what I did grow that year was mostly below average tasting to inpalatabe and each distinctly different in looks as the plants from the deco mini-pumkin sortiment. So far to saving seeds from an F1 hybrid.
There you see second-year One Balls: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/303247/27787957/in/album/552313
And for comparison a seed pack's presentation (my first year crop looked always like that as well)
https://www.samenhaus.de/zucchinisamen-zuccini-one-ball-f1-hybride-von-sperli-samen/a-575/

Fizgig November 16, 2017, 01:27 PM
I won't argue with ya 'cause I'm not a botanist.... I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.... I do a lot of cooking and my grandparents still lived off the land (in Europe), so they knew their crops --- zucchini being one of several cucurbita species they grew.... They were very clear when planting and/or harvesting about what was what and zucchini was different from the other cucurbita species --- diff't harvest times, diff't storage method, VERY diff't appearance. Generally, Zucchini was grown for human consumption while the rest were grown to feed the livestock through the winter months --- rarely cooked for human use, though seeds from certain types were roasted for human eating =) Here in the US, Zucchini is grown by many, so it can be found readily at garden centers sold as Zucchini next to "squash"es of all other types --- here, cucurbita seed mixes are uncommon.... At grocery stores, too, they are clearly labeled as diff't veggies.

But anyway..... Debate aside.... A nice capture ;)

Sonja November 17, 2017, 04:14 PM
There is hardly any argument. It is just hard to sort anything in the world by name as long one uses the vernacular names. LOL

A zuccini is always a squash, but not all squashes are zuccinis, Usually a Zuccini is a C.pepo only Korean Zucchini is a C. moschata, while some in that species are allready called a pumpkin. Yellow oblong zuccinis where always called "summer squash" where we bought them in the USA in the grocery department, which was usually at Meijers or Farmer Jack's in MI. It seems that "summer squash" is alternately or also used for very young harvested and smal Pattison Squashes, although I have to say I hardly ever saw a Pattison at a store outside Halloween decoration selling time, and then that where sizeable flying saucer of the little green men, with rather hard waxy peel. I never tried such a odd looking thing.

Fizgig November 17, 2017, 04:29 PM
The fact that there are so many man-made hybrids doesn't help things either, does it? LOL!

Zucchinis were always fun to watch grow to their true proportions --- grandma had quite a few specimens topping 6ft. in length. They basically started harvesting once the things reached 2-3ft. in length and then just picked 'em as necessary or to have varying sizes for cooking --- the flavor changed as the Zucchini matured/grew. Other squashes were less time-consuming.... Harvest 'em at the peak of ripeness for best nutritional value for the animals and store 'em. Fun stuff =)

Sonja November 18, 2017, 01:26 AM
And ideally, with a good one, you should be able to regrow next year from seeds of a matured one the same sort.... alas the Soleil is not much fun on this behalf. It produces fruits which are very tasty when young but as soon they exeed the size of a good EU-norm banana they develop a brown rotten point at the tip and a brown cord through the middle, spoiling and disolving the fruit before distinct seeds develop. Very clever to make people go back to the garden centre, no perenial sustainability. But at least no pretense as in the One Balls that get pretty even seeds but turn all strange variations the second time around.
Andy Rodker November 25, 2017, 09:49 AM
I know them as yellow courgettes. But I can't begin to fathom out 'One Balls'! What does this mean, Sonja. It seems particularly potent to me at the moment as I do have said anatomical item affected by shingles!
Sonja November 27, 2017, 01:36 PM
Andy, courgette is as what the french sell zuccini, and they as apposed to germans have a long tradition of selling also round ball zuccini at the grocery, which looks like sort of a melon. One-Ball (bright yellow) and Eight-Ball (almost black dark green) are comercial seeds sold in Germany at the garden centres, with names derived from billard balls, suggesting sort of better harvest them small, at the size range of billard balls. :o)

When it comes to eating especially healthy, consider to grow stabile sorts of vegetables, resistant to mildew without any treatments ever, not pretty trend fruits for show.
I dont know actually why we started to grow a yellow ball summer squash first, likely for vanity as you cant buy any look-alikes at the discounter and tangerine-style segments as sweet and sour preserve are just so exotic looking and stick out. They have no real very special properties asides of form, colour and decoration value in the end, and there are just as fine and buttery tasting oblong fruit with a nicer yield and tougher leafs.

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