Courgettes , men only !

[divvy]

I did all that , picked a male flower and twiddled in the female , my Son turned up and told me I was discusting . I was told you had to do this by my Mum. Are you sure you don't have to do anything .

[kerryp]

i havent done naything to my courgettes to "help them" & ive had 5 courgettes so far (would have been 8 had slugs not got the first 3), i did wonder why the flowers there at the mo looked different... after looking at those pics they're now producing male flowers. should i pull these out or leave them to look pretty?

[Florence Fennel]

You can leave them on to look pretty, or cut em off, dip in a thin batter and deep fry!

[kerryp]

ahhhhhhhhh ive wondered what people meant when they said courgette flowers are edible & when ive looked my flowers have died once the courgette has grown... goes to show i havent had many male flowers

[Florence Fennel]

The female ones are delightful Kerry because you can stuff them with cheese before you deep fry them. Just goes to show that the females are really useful, pretty, tasty and produce fruit. The male, well, what can I say other than it hangs about looking pretty?

[SMS6]

I thought it was the male flowers they used for stuffing and deep frying given that the female flowers are usually smaller and fall off unless you can manage to harvest one with just a tiny courgette on.

[Florence Fennel]

I thought it was the male flowers they used for stuffing and deep frying given that the female flowers are usually smaller and fall off unless you can manage to harvest one with just a tiny courgette on.

My female flowers have always been the same size as the males, but plumper and kind of "closed up" where the males are wide open. That's how I've been able to stuff the female flowers. I'm pretty sure that once the courgette has formed, they don't need the flower?