A cool collection of cucurbits....

...try saying that after you've had a few glasses of wine!

These are the cucurbits in question.........a mystery marrow (from a triffid-like self seeded plant in our front garden - where the plant has come from is anyone's guess!), a lovely round "Tondo di Toscana" courgette and a "Burpless" (yes, that really is its name) cucumber. All grown in the McRodd garden. Yum.

My plan was to use these veg to make some pickles for sale. As luck would have it, the latest Sainsburys magazine had a recipe for "spiced pickled marrow" - which I thought sounded....erm...at best, interesting, and at worst, downright weird...but with 6 big marrows sitting in the front garden, I was willing to give it a shot. After making the pickle (quite easy to do) I thought I should give it a taste, in the interests of quality control. Little did I imagine the development of a full scale addiction, rivalling only that of chocolate and rose wine! Blimey! So the upshot of this experience is that I am keeping all of the pickled marrow for myself I'm afraid, but I am going to post the recipe here in case anyone has a glut of marrows, courgettes or cucumbers and would like to make some of this addictive pickle too.

Spiced pickled marrow (makes 1.5L)

Peel a 2kg marrow, leaving a few streaks of green skin. Cut lengthways into quarters and remove the seeds. Halve the quarters lengthways again into eighths and cut into chunks about 2.5cm long. Place into a colander, sprinkle over 2 tsp of salt and mix, then put a plate directly on the marrow with a weight (such as some cans of beans on top). Leave for at least an hour to draw out some of the juice.

Meanwhile, wash your jars and lids in hot soapy water and sterilise in a low oven for 15 mins. They need to be warm when you add the pickle.

Rinse the marrow under cold running water and drain. Heat 2 tbsp sunflower oil in a large wide pan, add 1 finely diced onion and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes - do not let it colour. Add 1 red and 1 yellow pepper, seeded and finely diced and cook for 2 minutes. Add 570ml of white wine or cider vinegar, 450g of granulated sugar and 1.5 tsp of pickling spice. Bring gently to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the marrow; when the mixture is boiling, turn off the heat.

While it's still hot, use a slotted spoon to remove the veg from the pickling liquid, and pack into the warm jars as tightly as poss. Cover the contents of each jar with the pickling liquid. Screw the lids on tightly and leave to cool before using.

Enjoy, with salad, cheese, cold meat - or just straight from the jar dammit! Apparently it will keep for up to a year unopened, in a cool, dark place, although I don't think ours will last anywhere near that long, at least not if I get my hands on it!!