Marrow (vegetable)  A marrow is a vegetable, the mature fruit of certain "Cucurbita pepo" cultivars. The immature fruit of the same or similar cultivars is called "courgette" (in Britain, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand) or "zucchini" (in North America, Australia, Czechia, Italy, Germany and Austria). Like courgettes, marrows are oblong, green squash, but marrows have a firm rind and a neutral flavour ("overgrown when picked and insipid when cooked"), making them useful as edible casings for mincemeat and other stuffings. They can be stored for several weeks after harvest (like pumpkins and other winter squash), to be processed for food when required. They are a vegetable used in Great Britain and areas with significant British influence, though their popularity is waning in favor of immature summer squash like courgette. Giant marrows are grown competitively in the United Kingdom where the term "marrow" is often restricted to the striped, thick-skinned cultivar. In a culinary context, marrows are treated as a vegetable; usually cooked and presented as a savory dish or accompaniment. Botanically, marrows are fruit, a type of botanical berry, being the swollen ovary of the marrow flower. Marrows, like all squash, have their ancestry in the Americas. According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", the first mention of vegetable marrows dates to 1822, zucchini to 1929, and courgettes to 1931. Before the introduction of "Cucurbita" species from the New World, "marrow" signified the immature, edible fruits of "Lagenaria", a cucurbit gourd of African origin widely grown since Antiquity for eating when immature and for drying as watertight receptacles when grown to maturity. Marrows are commonly cultivated in the British Isles, and the term "marrow" for the plant and for the fruit is current there, especially for the striped, thicker-skinned cultivar. However, both in North America (since the 1920s) and in Britain (since the 1960s), thinner-skinned immature marrows have gained popularity due to their tender skin and distinct flavour. Hedrick (1928) in his book "The vegetables of New York" p.50, describes the "English Vegetable Marrow" as "one of the earliest forms of marrow squash grown, but has never been exceedingly popular in this country".