Ronde de Nice is a fine zucchini cultivar for the home garden. The seed catalogues say it is too easily damaged by handling to be a commercial crop, but for picking and using within a couple of days, it’s a winner. Picked about the size of an orange, the fruit are tender and have a beautiful flavour – think steamed and buttered, rather than chargrilled as you might with a black zucchini with its denser texture.
Mine grew very well, sown direct from early Spring (we have no danger of frost). Their kryptonite is prolonged wet weather, which brings fungal disease and leaf collapse, but they can also grow away from the damage (they do ramble a bit). Next year I will give them a lot more room, as they can grow a couple of metres and root along the ground. I will also avoid sowing for January and February.
In our subtropical climate we seem to have a short production season for zucchini, which you won’t have to deal with if you’re in a Mediterranean or dry Summer climate. Those sunny days are the key.
A bonus with zucchini is you can pick the flowers. Early and late in the season we seem to get only male flowers, and the few females don’t set (maybe I need to hand pollinate), so the flowers are wasted unless you pick them. Sauteed for a few seconds they make a nice sauce to go with your homemade fettuccini.