Amazing vegetable marrows

Last winter I won a small contest on MySpace given by a guy named Jesse. Jesse grows and sometimes sells seeds from giant plants. He was kind enough to send me seeds for sunflowers, sweet basil, watermelon, amaranth and vegetable marrows. We got one marrow early in the season, then the plant went wild, sending vines thirty feet or more in several different directions. As the vines were threading themselves through tall grass on a steep bank behind the house we didn't pay too much attention to them.

Yesterday there were serious frost warnings out. Liz and I spent much of the day picking, covering, and moving tender plants. We also began taking down the plantings in the garden pond and continued the absurd saga of trying to capture the gold fish to bring them inside (they seem to like it out there).

Just for the heck of it I clumbered around on the grassy bank to see if there were actually any marrows out there. I was so amazed to find these that I hollered loud enough for Liz to hear me from the house. She came out and dragged them down the hill for me and here they are.




Vegetable marrows are a sort of a vining zucchini-type thing. Big as these are....and they are the size of watermelons...they are still tender to the fingernail test. I am kind of nervous about eating them....but aren't they cool?


***Update: I cut the neck of the little one up and put it in a potato, bacon, corn and squash casserole I made last night. It was okay but the regular zucchini had a much nicer flavor.