Are you a gardener currently inundated with zucchini? A gardenerโs neighbor who keeps finding a bag left homeless on your front porch? Are you taking bushels to work with you along with recipes for zucchini bread, zucchini casserole, grilled zucchini? If so, take a break from your zucchini dreams and check out our list of fun facts about one of the easiest vegetables to grow in your garden. Bet youโll find out something you didnโt know before!
1. One zucchini has just 25 calories (compared to a baked potato, for example, which has 130 calories).
2. The flower of the zucchini plant is also edible. (If you dare.)
3. The worldโs largest zucchini on record was 69 1/2 inches long, and weighed 65 lbs. Bernard Lavery of Plymouth Devon, UK, grew the humongous veggie.
4. According to Worldโs Healthiest Foods Nutrition info, nutrients and vitamins found in zucchini can help prevent cancer and heart disease.
5. A soap bar called Fresh Zucchini Flower Big Bar Goatโs Milk Soap (rolls off the tongue, no?) is made with real zucchini.
6. The Zucchini Brothers (pictured, above), a band from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., performs songs for young children.
7. A zucchini has more potassium than a banana.
8. The word zucchini comes from รขโฌหzuccaรขโฌโข the Italian word for squash.
9. Biggest is NOT best. The most flavorful zucchinis are small- to medium-sized.
10. The three-day Annual Zucchini Fest in Obetz, Ohio, claims to be โeverything zucchini.โ The event runs from August 27-30, 2009, and includes a parade, queenโs pageant, contests, arts and crafts, games and much more.
Kinda puts some perspective on your plethora of produce, doesnโt it?
