Zucchini Come True

Zucchini, cucumbers and basil- freshly picked from the garden.

Zucchini, some may hate it and some may love it. For those that love it, it's a dream come true when they are able to produce on their own more zucchini than they can eat! This year has been my best zucchini year so far... which isn't saying much since I've not been able to grow it successfully until now. Last year I got a couple fruits and one fruit was really a gourd (and inedible- as it had a hard shell and ultimately sat as a trophy on a kitchen shelf for most of the winter as it slowly turned orange) due to some strange cross pollination with some of my other plants in the garden.

What was so different about this year?

Transplants.

In the spring I started seeds indoors for plants for which I desired an increased success. Typically I have relied on direct sowing of seed in June. I've read in books that squash plants do not like to be transplanted so direct sowing seemed to be my only ideal choice for growing them. However, after learning that some gardeners with an abundance of zucchini every summer used transplants... I figured there must be no major harm in doing so myself. So in May I sowed my zucchini seeds indoors- in peat pots. Peat pots are supposed to help reduce shock to roots when transplanting because you can just place the whole pot in the ground and it will break down naturally. The seedlings grew very well indoors under my plant lights and it was very encouraging to place a significant sized plant out into the garden when the time came as opposed to a few seeds which may or may not survive at all. In addition, because peat pots never seem to break down as quickly as you want them to, I tore away at portions of the peat pots when transplanting time came to give the plants' roots an easier escape from their cramped confinement. All in all I planted out five zucchini plants... and I got five healthy productive plants too. It was not a seed gamble, I got exactly what I planted. And with five plants we have also receive the longed for zucchini harvest that has eluded us thus far.

Now of course weather and other factors could have played a part in this story of zucchini come true. It has been a rather warm and sunny summer (with an early spring). Squash plants like it warm. They also like delicious soil, which I provided for a bit better this year with my U-haul of compost that was worked into the entire garden. Its a good idea to give them a few shovel fulls of compost where you plant them, in the case of transplants dug a hole- filled it with compost and then gently inserted the young plants in their peat pots.

So how have we been eating some of this zucchini?

 Zucchini meets the vegetable peeler.

Pasta with Zucchini Sauce:

Saute 3 crushed garlic cloves in olive oil (about 6 tablespoons)

Thinly slice about 2 or 3 zucchini with a potato peeler and saute in oil with garlic.

Then stir in:

3 tablespoons chopped basil

2 chilies chopped

1oz lemon juice

5 tablespoons heavy cream

4 tablespoons (or more to taste) Parmesan cheese

Serve zucchini mixture on top of a plate of spaghetti, linguine or tagliatelle.

Note: This is one of my favorite ways to eat zucchini. The dish has a flavor that is a break from the usual and is so easy to make.

Fried Zucchini- it speaks for itself. Try breading the zucchini or a batter mixture and fry in a pan with enough oil that the slices do not rest on the bottom of the pan. The frying takes minutes to do. Here we used a beer batter taken from The Joy of Cooking.

Other ways we have used up our zucchini is by making vegetable lasagna, with layers of zucchini slices. Or grating zucchini into one cup quantities and freezing in individual bags for later use in zucchini bread (also one of my favorite ways to eat zucchini!).

How do you like to prepare your zucchini?

Canning Raspberry Jam

Recently I made a pilgrimage to go raspberry picking. I used to go berry picking all the time when I was a kid and the whole experience is still very comforting. The sights and sounds and smells of a farm and fields of crops... ahhh. Unfortunately, the picking wasn't all that great due to my very late in the season visit. Upon arrival to the U-pick field, I asked the attendant sitting under the shade of a tent what her recommendations were as far as picking locations. She pointed out a few rows and explained that as it was the end of the season and that I would 'really have to look.' Most of the unpicked berries were already rotting on the bushes, but I managed to pick 8 quarts by being creative with the berry hunting. The strategic method employed was mostly by picking from areas of the bushes in which many people are not inclined search if they are not willing to bend over or get scratched a little. I hunted for the ruby gems in the more 'innconvenient locations', such as low the the ground and on your hands and knees kind of picking as well as finding those hidden inside the bush which involved pushing aside the snagging brambles.

Barns, farm animals and country stores! Love it!

After about two hours of picking I had lots of berries, which were immediately turned into homemade jam as soon as I got home. Mmm mmm. Compared to strawberry jam, I feel that raspberry jam has a lot less prep work involved- with strawberries you have to tediously remove all the stems. With strawberries, though, the fruit is bigger and essentially you have less work with the harvesting time. Either way raspberry jam happens to be my personal favorite flavor-wise anyway, so there is a little bias. With all the deliciousness aside, you can't go wrong with a food product that you can easily make yourself and which contains literally three ingredients: fruit, sugar, pectin- that's it!

Mega Garden July Profile

The garden is doing very well so far this year, despite the on going chunk and slug wars. I felt it was overdue to share a bit of an overview of how the garden as a whole is doing. Without trying to overwhelm one with the vegetables that are growing out there I concentrated on a few crops this time that are doing particularly well (and in some cases the best I've grown ever).

Tomatoes. So far so good, non-stop explosive growth and no signs of disease- yet. Lots of fruit.

Tomatillos. First year growing them and they are doing quite well as far as I know I can see. They are tall plants that's for sure and need to be tied up as they do not handle winds very well and will snap if you don't. Lots of fruit which are hidden inside the Chinese lantern-like forms you can see hanging off the plant.

From left to right: Onion, carrot and kale. This was the row devastated by the evil ground chunks about a month ago. It made me want to cry how bad it was, but these vegetables didn't give up and have made a come back.

Cucumbers. DOING AMAZING! This is the first successful attempt at growing cucumbers. My guess as to why: better planning, started seedlings indoors, a trellis (as slapdash as it is- it works), more compost worked into the soil, and maybe the most essential- a hot hot sunny summer.

Green cabbage. Last year my cabbage didn't survive the slugs, this year it was almost obliterated during the chunk wars. Its made a come back and this may yet be the first year I have been able to grow cabbage successfully.

Leeks (with carrots in between). These guys were started from seed way back in February. In fact, the first official seed germinated on February 9th- that's how long they have been growing. They still have a ways to go. However, I have learned there is no rush to harvest leek who, around here, can survive winter weather for harvest in spring.

Beets. I have been growing beets every year and they cease to disappoint me. Two beds were sown with a beets/kohlrabi/beets plan (they are companion plants). Unfortunately the kohlrabi didn't really survive the slugs and chunks this year, but the beets remained virtually untouched!

Peppers. This bed has four different pepper plants with six each of: Hungarian wax, jalapeno, and two kinds of bell pepper. They are doing OK, they have been dropping some of their bottom most leaves. They are turning yellow and falling off. It may be a nutrient deficiency perhaps and I will experiment with some things to cheer them up. Two of the jalapenos didn't make it due to slugs. In between the groups of peppers, which don't mind being planted close together (8-12") I have basil and cilantro.

Chard. I love planting Swiss chard, its so easy to grow and its so gorgeous!

Basil. Last year my basil was not very good. Again a problem with a close association with evil slugs eating my seedlings. This year however I started plants indoors in the spring and transplanted them out. This proved to provide me a guarantee of basil to look forward. I also tried direct sowing seeds, but with a near 90% mortality rate due to slugs I am going for the transplants in full force next year.

Peas. They did great this year. Here is a bed planted along the fence. I grew three kinds of peas this year: sugar snap, snow, and pod peas. They were so delicious that only a small amount actually made it out of the garden due to being devoured during my daily visits to the garden. In my opinion the sugar snap were the best. 'Sugar' for the sweet flavor and 'snap' for the sound of my teeth as I eat them all. Mmm Mmm Mmm.

Zucchini. Like my other squash plants they are growing great. I have dreamed of the year that my garden could produce loads of zucchini as they do for other gardeners. The dream has come true.

Garlic. Last year I planted two rows, this year I did three- that's how much I love love love garlic. It was enough garlic to last us up until a few months ago. Now they are getting ready to harvest again.

Garlic on the left and onions on the right.

That's it for the mega garden profile. Hope you enjoyed your tour, come again next month!

Canning Dilly Beans

I have never felt the anticipation for precipitation from both people and nature like this in a long time.

We are in the midst of a heat wave... which has been a heat week of 90-95 degree days- with NO RAIN at all. Things are drying up and overheating. Its been way too hot to work outside so very little garden work has been going on besides watering. Even with the evening waterings the plants were wilting... if I didn't water then you can imagine I wouldn't have much to blog about.

The other day while I was finishing up watering in the garden I heard some sounds up in a tree... I meandered over to where the sounds were coming from thinking it was a squirrel running around in the branches. Then all of the sudden there was an eerie sound of creaking and moaning... cracking, a large completely healthy looking branch on a seemingly healthy looking tree... SNAPPED. Right in front of my own eyes! Its still dangling there high up there in the canopy. I've never seen anything like it before. With nothing else being the apparent culprit, I blame water stress (though I am not sure). Even the lawn is dying for crying out loud.

So naturally I decide to do some canning. I'm stuck inside right?

 

I picked about five pounds of string beans... in particular, purple burgundy beans. These guys were planted back on May 5th. Normally you wouldn't plant beans until after your frost free date, which around here is Memorial day. However, according to one of my gardening books, you can plant purple burgundy beans earlier than regular string beans since they can handle the cold weather better. They are also beautiful.

Interestingly, the beans are only purple on the outside. Even the smallest immature beans are green. Once cooked they turn green again.

Anyway, enough about beans... what did I make out of them?

Dilly beans!