Zucchini Tricolour F1 - Cucurbita pepo

The Tricolour Courgette is a mix of three round courgette varieties that offers a beautiful range of colours: pale green, yellow, and dark green. These courgettes are of very good quality and can be consumed both in their juvenile stage, in salads, and at maturity, stuffed with meat or cheese. They are sown under cover from April to May or directly in the ground from late May to late June for a harvest from July to October.

Orange, green, red, yellow, black, or even blue, smooth, ribbed, warty, with tender skin... Squashes and courgettes offer astonishing variability in shapes, colours, and sizes because they hybridize with disconcerting ease. That's why there are so many varieties.

In common language, winter squashes refer to all sorts of pumpkins, potimarrons, and butternut squashes with tough skin and delicately sweet flesh. Summer squashes or courgettes (in Latin, Cucurbita pepo) refer to the different varieties that are harvested when the skin is still tender. The latter are consumed with the seeds when they are still tender.

All of them are native to America and belong to the large cucurbit family. They were introduced to Europe in the 16th century. Generally trailing, they cling to any support with their tendrils. Female flowers are distinguished from male flowers by their inferior ovary (below the flower), resembling an embryo of a fruit. In many regions, male flowers are harvested just after pollination to be consumed stuffed or in fritters.

In cooking, courgettes can be prepared in multiple ways: sautéed, fried, gratin, soups, or stuffed. They are essential ingredients in Provençal ratatouille, Maghrebi couscous, and many emblematic Mediterranean dishes. They are low in calories but rich in vitamins, including provitamin A, vitamin B, and minerals.

Courgettes are fruit vegetables that need regular watering to bring out their best. They love heat and sunshine and do not thrive in the garden before early June.

NB: This variety is labelled F1 for "F1 hybrid" because it is a variety resulting from the cross-breeding of carefully selected parents to combine their qualities. This results in a variety that can be particularly flavorful and/or early-maturing while also being resistant to certain diseases. Sometimes criticized or wrongly associated with GMOs, F1 hybrid seeds are interesting both for their uniformity and resistance, but unfortunately, their qualities do not pass on to subsequent generations. Therefore, it will not be possible to save the seeds for future sowing.

Harvest: Courgettes are harvested young and fresh.

Storage: They can be stored for a few days at room temperature or in the bottom of the refrigerator and cut into pieces and frozen for several months.

The gardener's tip: Don't forget the flowers! Even though the vegetable garden is primarily a garden for producing quality vegetables, it is always interesting to plant flowers in it. Firstly, for the aesthetic pleasure they provide, but also to repel pests and attract precious pollinators. So, don't hesitate to plant Gaillardias, Marigolds, Zinnias, Cosmos, Nasturtiums, or even beautiful herbs like Dill in the middle of the rows or at the edge of the bed. However, be careful with some plants, such as Borage, which tends to self-seed abundantly in dedicated cultivation spaces.