Up to our necks in courgettes

May and June whizzed by and the poor blog has been neglected. It’s not that there isn’t lots to write about – rather that there aren’t enough hours in the day. Yet when our friends from England ask me what I do with my time, I struggle to come up with a credible answer. Whatever I am doing, it’s certainly not sitting on the terrace with a good book; I have less time for reading now than I did when I was a commuter!

The reality is that I’ve spent most of my time over the last month or so, whenever it’s not been raining and even sometimes when it has, either in the garden or at my vegetable plot. Whatever the venue, the agenda has been the same – waging war on the slugs and weeds which have been doing so well in the warm damp weather or planting the backlog of seedlings which have been growing faster than I’ve been able to keep up with them.

I’ve just about caught up now and we’re starting to see some results, mostly in the form of monster courgettes (in the picture that’s a dinner plate, not a saucer!). With all this rain it feels like a game of vegetable grandmother’s footsteps – no sooner do I turn my back than they grow another 5cm.

Given Jonathan declared early on in our relationship that he didn’t like courgettes, this has been a bit of a challenge! I daren’t tell him that there’s a very fine line between a large courgette and a small marrow, because while he will eat courgettes as long as they’re well disguised, he won’t allow even a molecule of marrow to pass his lips.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to give the odd monster or two away, but now everyone’s in the same boat (and if you don’t believe me, google ‘courgette glut’ for enlightenment); my neighbour declined my offer of some more courgettes at the bread van last Friday.

There’s nothing for it but to seek out every palatable courgette recipe I can find and then freeze the surplus!

If you’re in the same predicament, my list of courgette recipes from the past week or so (plus a few I’m planning) might give you some inspiration:

• Courgette and Brie soup (made with our local cheese, Langres, rather than Brie) from The new Covent Garden soup company’s (first) book of soups

• Antonio Carluccio’s Sedani (a type of pasta) with courgettes and walnuts from BBC.co.uk’s recipe section. This is a dream ticket recipe as it sorts out more than one glut – we’re still eating last year’s walnuts and this year’s are already swelling on the tree!

• Petites (that’s a joke) courgettes farcis from Joanne Harris and Fran Ward’s ‘The French Market’

• Courgette and cheese gratin from Marks and Spencer’s ‘France – the food and the lifestyle’

• Pretty much everything from the courgette section of Sarah Raven’s recent ‘Garden Cookbook’ (published just when I was in the direst need and my current favourite). We particularly like the courgette risotto, courgette and dill farfalle and the courgette and lemon salad.

• I never go for more than a few days without cooking something from Nigel Slater’s ‘The Kitchen Diaries’ and his zucchini cakes with dill and feta are especially good (though I sometimes use French ewe’s cheese rather than feta). I have no doubts about this being my desert island book!

• I’ve also designs on the courgette and tomato pie and the broad bean and courgette pasta sauce recipes from Anna Ross’ ‘Green Cuisine’. The latter of these is another dream ticket recipe as the broad bean pods are also looking rather threatening!

So bring on those broad beans!