View Single Post
  #5   Report Post  
Old 08-09-2010, 09:14 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
David WE Roberts[_2_] David WE Roberts[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2010
Posts: 185
Default The courgette glut finally hits me


"David in Normandy" wrote in message
r...
On 08/09/2010 20:07, Christina Websell wrote:

LOL! I'm not successful at growing them - slugs nip them off so I was
pleased with my marrow-sized courgette.
As for your offer of half a ton, 20lbs would be enough!
Seriously, unless you buy an extra freezer (I found courgettes freeze OK
for
use in stir fries) what do you do with them if you have a glut - apart
from
haunting friends and neighbours ;-)?


The freezer is full and there are only so many I can give away. I've grown
five plants this year and that has made far more courgettes and marrows
than we can eat or give away. So now I'm afraid once they get beyond
courgette size I put them in the compost bins. It has now reached the
stage that several marrows go into the compost every week.
I dislike wasting food but I'm starting to think of such surplus along the
lines of lawn clippings - it is just an excess of organic matter to
compost. Same with runner beans. My French neighbour runs away now if he
sees me picking runner beans.

There are those who say give them away to people who have no gardens etc
but it is a question of logistics and cost. If someone turned up once a
week to collect the surplus or if there was a convenient drop off point in
the village then they could all be given away. However, I'm not going to
go door knocking throughout the village asking everyone if they want
courgettes or runner beans! Such is life. There is either a glut or a
shortage of certain things.


At our allotment there is a table for surplus produce.
Not that you would get anyone to take courgettes, but in a village perhaps
there could be a spot where you leave excess produce for others to help
themselves.
A few houses around here leave bags of produce (such as Victoria plums) for
passers by.

Cheers

Dave R
--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")