Article Contributed on: 9/12/2006 10:49:13 PM
I love gardening. I've tried growing just about everything and have enjoyed success and failure over the years with lots of varieties of flowers and vegetables.
This summer, I planted four different kinds of squash . I grew Butternut Squash, Yellow Summer Squash, Pattypan Squash; for the first time, and against my better judgement, Zucchini.
Anyone who has ever grown zucchini knows what I'm talking about. Now that it's harvest time, I'm dreaming of life without the zucchini plant. It's taken over, and I've run out of ideas. I really should have known better, but the darling little fresh ,tender zucchini packed by the dozen, in crystal clear plastic bags in the organic produce section looked divine. What I hadn't remembered, is that you've got to be on your toes every single day to pick them when they're a "darling little" zucchini.
Mine have hidden under their gigantic leaves, and gobbled up water and sunshine like there's no tomorrow. I have picked medium to large sized to monstrous. Not a one of them would stand a chance to be displayed in the produce section of any store, anywhere so I got out the cookbooks, and went to work.
I sauteed, baked, stir fried, shredded, chopped, and put it in breads, cakes, cookies, soups, stews, casserole's, quiches, and omelet's. Can you believe that I found recipes for chocolate covered zukes? There's everything from appetizers to main dishes to desserts. The best recipes I found call for gobs of cheese. YAY!!
My Mother says that "even if you can't grow a weed, you can grow zucchini." She's right . Zucchini grows best in the following conditions: dirt, mud, rock, sand, sunny, cloudy, rainy, hail, dry, hot, warm, cool, probably even cold, and possibly tornados.
During the past several weeks, well meaning friends and neighbors have lovingly delivered their home grown stash of the big Z to me with the pride of a farmer. I wisely avoided inviting them past the living room, since the zucchini stacked high in my kitchen sink could easily cause hurt feelings. I wasn't ungrateful, but I was quickly approaching zucchini overload.
I went back to the slicing and dicing gig for a while, but when my husband walked in with yet another armful of the over grown giants, I grabbed them, and on the advice of Mom, dropped them on the front porches of as many neighbors as there were zucchini's, rang their doorbells and ran like heck!! Enjoy.........................