How to Know When a Zucchini Is Ripe

Determining when this green summer squash is ripe prevents them from getting too large and reducing the quantity of the garden harvest. Zucchini is delicious stuffed, fried, steamed, eaten raw or in salads. Shredding or grating it in baked goods such as zucchini bread or muffins is a tricky way to supply this vegetable to young children or picky eaters. Zucchini that is too large has a tough skin, large seeds and fibrous or watery flesh.

Instructions

- 1
  Touch the skin of the zucchini. If it feels tender to the touch and pricks easily with your thumbnail, it is ripe and ready to eat. Zucchini skin hardens when it is too large or overripe.
- 2
  Pick the zucchini when it is approximately 6 to 8 inches long or medium-sized. Take care not to remove the zucchini from the vine roughly, as new roots often grow from the joints on the vine. Harvesting smaller zucchini is acceptable if you're using them for eye appeal, steaming them whole or adding to a dish with baby fruit.
- 3
  Remove zucchini from the vines late in the morning after the dew dries or early afternoon. Disease may spread when plucking them from a wet vine, according to the University of Minnesota Extension.

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