They taste of very mild zucchini in flavor, but the texture is light and delicate. It's what you would imagine a flower to feel like in your mouth. They can be eaten raw, or baked, or fried, or stuffed and cooked in one of the aforementioned ways. So far, I've made them a few ways. Battered and pan fried, which was good, but once fried, they really could have been anything. Dry/wet/dry coated then pan fried, and again, they kind of could have been anything with that kind of coating. And the other day, when I had a horticulturalist come over to diagnose my tomatoes, and rudely plucked my one and only (and very first zucchini flower that I'd ever grown in my entire life >:( ) blossom and unceremoniously hand it to me, I just washed it, tossed it into a pan with a smidge of butter, and sauteed it until it was just wilted. THAT was my favorite preparation of them all because I was able to really taste the delicate flavor of the blossom instead of hiding it inside a heavy fried flavor. It's tempting to fill and fry them, but honestly, I could fill and fry something much less precious and it'd probably taste about the same, since I'm sure the predominate tastes would be from the filling.

You can use them at any stage, as long as they're still fresh. Some people like them when they're open or partially open because they're easier to stuff without having to peel open the petals, thereby possibly ruining them, but you have to be willing to get up early to harvest them. ;) Some people prefer them partially closed for their own reasons (I think I've read that it's easier for some people to stuff them partially closed because they'll stay twisted shut easily after something is piped into the middle). I like them any 'ol way since I don't stuff them, but have found that cutting them with the stem attached, putting them into a ziplock bag with a moist paper towel slipped inside, and putting them into the fridge will close up the blossoms a bit while keeping them fresh for several days. -spaghetina

Katyajini: tammy, thank you for the link to you wonderful website. what did you use to make the support around your tomato plants? I would be very interested. They look sturdy and not about to topple! Where do you get your cocozelle seeds? The common web vendors don't seem to have it. ***** the cages are texas tomato cages and i love them. you can do a search here and on google and they get great reviews. i especially like them because they fold flat for winter sotrage. i actually bought my seedling from natural gardening company but they have seeds as well: http://www.naturalgardening.com/cgi-bin/shop/S-Mart.cgi?command=listitems&type=group&pos=0amp;pg=vegetables&group=ssquash but you can find the seeds cheaper here: http://www.reimerseeds.com/cocozelle-zucchini-squash.aspx http://www.dianeseeds.com/zucchini-cocozelle.html the plant is very vigorous (knock on wood that SVB doesn't get to it)...my son hacked it in half when it was a few weeks old and it recovered beautifully. it is also a good producer. i am going to pick 4 sqaush tomorrow and about 5-6 male blossoms. i have about 5 more baby females as well. alot of the male stalks have 2 blossoms at the end of the stem. ------------- cyrus_gardner: By the way, at what stage and how do you prepare/eat them? ************* i pick the males when they are mature but i had some with 2 blossoms on the end of the stem so i picked them both. i like them big so i can stuff them with a cheese filling, them batter them and fry them. so good. i posted a recipe on my blog of pulled pork stuffed squash blossoms but usually i will stuff them with whatever i have in the fridge (cheese, sun dried tomato, herbs). i am asian and my mom loves them sauteed... i have also seen recipes for them in quesidillas. they are so delicious i can't see you going wrong cooking them any way. Here is a link that might be useful: squash blossom recipes.

Squash will produce all season if they survive. I don't know if you get the squash vine borer or not but if you do, and you have the space, you might want to start another few plants along about now. The little devil of a borer usually kills the plants sometime in late June or July here in VA. Starting more now will give you replacements for later in the season. But the answer to your question is yes, they will produce male and female blooms as long as they are healthy, like indeterminate tomatoes. Sandy