~ Seed for COURGETTES & SUMMER SQUASH ~
Courgettes and other summer squash are picked small and tender, rather than left to grow to full size (that would make a marrow).
Modern supermarket ones might be bland, but home-grown courgettes are a different thing altogether! They're tasty, easy to grow, and hugely productive.
Some really good traditional varieties do still exist, and these are the best we have found. (NB: "Summer squash" are picked young and used just like courgettes but are different shapes & colours.)
We would normally grow about 3 or 4 plants for our own use - but always sow many more than you need, to allow for losses to pests and toddlers)
Sowing Information
Don't rush to sow - often plants that go out slightly later will catch up and do much better than earlier plantings battered by spring storms.
TIP: Mice love to steal courgette seed, and slugs love the baby plants. The seed will also germinate best with a bit of heat, so taking all that into account, we recommend sowing indoors in small pots, then planting out when they have 3 true leaves.
Sharks Fin melon gourd
Don't be put off by the name! This is neither a melon nor a gourd, in fact a relative of squash - however it is absolutely delicious and you use it like you would a courgette, except that it tastes nicer than a courgette.
The vines are quite large and vigourous and climb all over things and then produce lots of large green and white stripey fruit, just like a green pumpkin. However you do not let them get big (unless you are saving seed to plant next year) instead you take them small when they may be the size of a large grapefruit. Slice and fry them with olive oil and garlic or any other recipe that you would use a courgette for and they are lovely.
Very vigourous under cover, outdoors will need a sunny spot and something to climb.
6 seeds, organic. £
Long Sicilian White Courgette
A rare heirloom from Sicily, this is an unusually long & slender courgette - usually growing to about 25 to 30 cm, even when young and tender. It has a pale creamy-green skin, with very slight ridges all along its length.
A guest variety first introduced last year, we like this a lot and will keep it in the catalogue.
14 seed £
Friuliano Summer Squash - BEAUTIFUL
This is another type of summer squash from Italy, which is an incredible pastel-lime-green, with a really good flavour. It is a bit denser and more filling than courgettes, and doesn't turn to mush when cooked. Very good in a risotto.
It's a traditional variety from the mountains on the Italian-Austrian border; the plants are large bushes, with only a slight tendency to vine.
Harvest when small and tender (3” to 7” long) & use like a courgette. Really delicious when fried!
12 seed £
'Nice Round' Ball Courgette - NEW
The “Courge Ronde de Nice” is an ancient variety of pale green, almost white, ball-courgette from the region of Nice in France. Harvest when about tennis-ball sized & cook as a normal courgette.
A lovely pale green heirloom variety.
14 seed £
'Bennings Green Tint'
This is one of the most beautiful varieties of Patty Pan squash there is, and it dates from around 1900 or a little earlier. The bushes are quite vigorous and make uniform saucer-shaped fruits with scalloped edges and pale-green, fine-textured flesh of good flavor. Harvest them when about 2- 3 inches across, and the plant will make lots more.
Heirloom pale green variety. Pick when small!
12 seed, organic. £
White and Cream Crookneck
A lovely new strain of crookneck from Germany, with pale creamy white fruit borne in profusion on strong productive bush plants.
This is its second year of trial and we're continuing with it because feedback so far has been really good. Let us know what you think - they'll stay in the catalogue if lots of people email in to say they like it.
Denser and more flavourful than a courgette, but equally productive!
10 seed £
"Just wanted to say the cream white crookneck summer squash is the best I’ve grown. I’ve 2 plants and despite the heatwaves and growing in a 12inch pots, they are taking over! I’ve harvested 4 so far and more to go. A really good flavour as well, they’ve outdone other varieties I’ve grown in the past" Many thanks - Jo
"Patisson Blanc" White Patty-Pan Squash
Patty-pan squash are flattened, saucer-shaped courgettes. This old French heirloom produces white fruit, which are cut when young (about 3 inches across) and cooked or fried just like a courgette. The flavour is a little richer and more substantial than courgettes, with a slight 'nutty' taste. Very popular each year, they can be quite prolific indeed in a good summer.
Saucer-shaped white courgette! Pick when small.
14 seed £
Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash
We're very pleased to offer this once again, a straighneck squash from 1938 with lemon-yellow fruit with gently bumpy skin. The flavour is better than a normal courgette and this particular strain from High Mowing Seeds has been improved to be resistant to powdery mildew.
We love these for their flavour - we always add a few plants on the end of the seed production run so we have plenty to eat ourselves.
This one does exactly what it says on the label! It keeps on making more and more and more . . . .
12 seed, organic. £
Sowing Information
Do pick them young while tender, if you let them get big they will go hard like a winter squash and are OK that way, but we think they are much nicer when used young like a courgette.
'Summer Crookneck'
This is an amazing knobbly yellow squash, with bulbous fruit and a curved neck (hence the name).
Although botanically a 'squash' it is always picked young as baby fruit, sliced whole, & used just like a courgette - with a great nutty flavour. We think that these are tastier than courgettes!
Always a favourite of ours, and very productive.
12 seed £
'Tromboncino'
A unique dual-purpose squash on long rampant vines. Baby green fruits can be harvested and used like a summer squash when 8-12" long, they are sweet like courgettes and great steamed, grilled or sliced raw.
If not used young like a courgette, the fruits will grow up to 3 foot long with meaty necks that can be used much like a marrow.
60 days for summer squash, 90 days for winter squash. Let us know if you like it!
12 seed £
Trieste White Cousa Courgette
Cousa-type courgettes are originally from the Middle East with short, chubby, slightly bulbous white fruit. (Well, really a very, very pale green rather than ‘white’.)
We prefer courgettes like this one, as they fruit earlier and more heavily than normal courgettes, and the fruit stay tender to a greater size. Seed grown for us by the Seed Cooperative in Lincolnshire.
Early, high production , particularly good flavour and texture
12 seed, organic. £
'Verde di Italia' Pale Green Ribbed Courgette
A good early courgette which makes lots of pale green fruit. They have very gentle ridges along their length; we like them because their flesh is very tender and particularly finely-flavoured.
14 seed £
'Caserta' Courgette - NEW
A plump heirloom introduced by F.H. Woodruff and Sons about 80 years ago. Very pretty with its pale gray-green backgound & darker green stripes, it has an excellent buttery flavour.
You won't find it in the shops because it has such a soft & delicate skin - so it's no good for long-distance packaging & transport, but that's what makes it so nice to eat. One of the earlier varieties to fruit as well!
Early & stripey courgette from the 1940's, AAS winner 1949.
12 seed £
'Striato d'Napoli' Courgette
A good early courgette from Italy. Big bushy plants giving lots of long, pretty fruit with alternating light and dark green stripes.
Perfectly smooth and round in cross-section, and the flesh doesn't go as 'soft' when cooked as other courgettes do.
We like it a lot: very productive, but it doesn't sprawl too much, so it's a good choice if you have a small plot.
Early & stripey. Large bush but not too sprawling!
12 seed £
'Verde di Milano' Dark Green Dwarf Bush Courgette
This is a small bush (not a vine), making medium-sized very dark green (almost black) courgettes.
Because it is smaller plant it is a good choice for those of you with a tiny plot ( and also for all those with a huge plot who are just always hopelessly over-optimistic about how many different things can be squeezed in!)
We like to eat our courgettes picked small and fried with garlic - delicious.
14 seed, organic. £
'Burpees Golden Zucchini' - YELLOW Courgette
This incredible yellow courgette was selected by Oved Schifriss in the 1940s and was introduced to home gardeners by the "W. Atlee Burpee & Co" seed house.
Our strain was further improved by the A.P. Whaley Seed Co, and then reselected by us on our farm: the bushes are compact, and produce large numbers of bright yellow courgettes.
Good flavour. Best picked 8-10 inches long.
12 seed, organic. £
Smooth or Round Loofa
A climbing vegetable from Egypt, Vietnam and China, also spelt Luffa. It makes cylindrical fruit that are picked young and green (under 6 inches) and used fried, curried or boiled ( like a courgette), and has beautiful yellow flowers. Grow up netting in a polytunnel or greenhouse only (it needs a long warm summer).
Delicious eaten small, inedibly fibrous when large, but then can be used as a pot scourer - check your invoice sheet for instructions.
12 seed £
Saving Courgette & Summer Squash Seed:
It is very easy to save your own courgette seed, but you really do have to do it properly.
For seed production, you really must pollinate the flowers by hand, otherwise they will cross with all the other squash and pumpkins, giving tasteless watery mongrels that are no good to eat.
The rubber bands hold the flowers shut so the bees can't get in and cross-pollinate them before you get there.
Don't be daunted! It only takes a few minutes to do this properly, and you'll get great seed.
