Vegetables & garden · Cucurbita pepo
Discovering courgettes
Flauschi holds her paws beside a small courgette. Flauschi“Still a handy size today.”
The short answer
Courgettes develop from flowers and are botanical fruits. In cooking, they are vegetables. Courgettes are usually harvested young. Left on the plant, they can grow much larger.
An imagined Wusel scene
Puschel and Flauschi investigate
Flauschi holds her paws beside a small courgette. Flauschi“Still a handy size today.”
Puschel puts his paws on his hips. A yellow flower shines between large leaves; the little green fruit grows close to the ground.
Puschel“I do not want to organise a courgette removal service,” he jokes. They discuss the right harvest time for their variety with an adult.
Discover
Courgettes develop from flowers and are botanical fruits. In cooking, they are vegetables.
Understand
Courgettes are usually harvested young. Left on the plant, they can grow much larger.
Connections
Varieties may be long or round, green or yellow. Many courgette plants are bushy and need space for their large leaves.
Try explaining it
Why is a harvested courgette often still small?
Choose a), b) or c), then explain your choice.
- a)The fruit gets smaller rather than larger after flowering.
- b)It was usually harvested as a young fruit.
- c)The picked fruit was already as big as it could ever become.
Show the explanation
Correct: b): It was usually harvested as a young fruit.
A fruit left on the plant can keep growing. Young harvest and a small plant species mean different things.
Explore in more detail
Here you will find longer explanations and further details. You can explore them together.
Why are courgettes often harvested young?
A young courgette usually has tender flesh and less developed seeds. Left on the plant, it can become much larger as its seeds mature. A small fruit is therefore not necessarily a special dwarf variety. Harvest timing changes what we use in the kitchen.
Compare and understand
There are male and female flowers; a female flower already has a small swelling behind it. Not every flower therefore becomes a courgette. Unusually bitter fruits can contain poisonous compounds that cooking does not reliably destroy. Adults select and check food; children should not run a tasting test.
An optional question for further exploration
You can use the longer explanation above. This is extra, not needed for the first quiz.
An extra question
Must a courgette always be long and dark green?
Show answer
No. Some varieties are round or yellow.