I have to admit, I am fickle with my vegetable love. But tromboncino has been up there for quite a while now. This morning I discovered this one has overwintered, secretly, and already started bearing. These little, zucchini substitute squash will be ready to pick within days now, long before my newly planted zucchini or squash.
And I like them so much better – a little firmer and less watery than zucchini, a little sweeter, less bitterness, creamier, and so much easier to grate or spiralize. But best of all, so much easier to grow. They climb on a great rambling vine, so conserving a lot of bed space and getting enough sun and air to beat the powdery mildew that often knocks out my zucchini early in these la Nina years. Mine took over the carport roof last summer. The vine lasts all summer, and though frost will kill it, in my sub-tropical climate it will often overwinter. The only downside is that they will cross, easily, with pumpkins so if you intend saving seed, you will need to watch out for promiscuous pumpkins nearby. Luckily for me, my African neighbours love pumpkin leaves as a green vegetable so much that none of my pumpkin vines lasted long enough to cross with the last of the trombies, so I have some new babies planted for this year.
The other downside is that, just like zucchini or cucumbers, it’s difficult to avoid planting too many and ending up with a situation like this one described by one of my all-time favouite poets (I’m not so fickle with poets).
I, too, prefer tromboncinos to zucchinis. They climb up to the Hill’s Hoist wires and provide summer shade as well as taking up minimal space. In suburban McDowall, they do OK over winter – in fact I prefer the winter fruits to the summer offerings.
This summer, I’m also trialling New Guinea Bean, or bottle gourd, at the request of my Indian son-in-law. Dunno if I’ll be able to cope with what I expect will be gazillions of zucchini-substitutes, though.
Ha ha! By the end of summer, even the chooks are over curcubits. I haven’t tried New Guinea Bean. You will have to tell me if it is worth growing.
How I love this one! I haven’t planted any this year as I ran out of seed.
Pingback:Processing Mid-summer gluts - The Witches Kitchen
I grew these together with bottle gourds for the first time this year. I’m hoping they will keep as I have way too many. I have a harvest dinner coming up with our gardening group and thought I might use the trombotino to make your zucchini mutha recipe. It will be great if I can keep the zucchini vibe going long after the zucchinis have finished. Love your blog Linda.