At this time last year we were harvesting eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes. But alas, every year is different and we are still waiting for the nightshades to shape up. The zucchini, however, is cranking it out. Some years some things just do well. Right now, the zucchini is thriving. It is even showing up the yellow squash which usually out paces everything. Zucchini is an amazing vegetable in part because is just grows so quickly. We harvest zucchini every two days to keep up with that rapid growth, but occasionally we miss a day. Occasionally a fruit hides amid the green of the leaves and grows to baseball bat proportions between harvests. But even when they don’t get away from us, these zucchinis get big quick. The incredible capacity of the zucchini to produce huge amounts of food rapidly has earned it a place on my “Grow In Case of Apocalypse” list alongside sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, and daikon radishes (to name a few). If you need to eat, you want zucchini on your team.
What I am driving at here is that some of the zucchinis this week may be large. And if your box happens to contain dainty zucchinis, just tuck these recipe ideas away because somewhere in you future is a big zucchini. You can be sure of it. We have farmers market customers who prefer larger zucchinis for making baked stuffed zucchini, and for grating and making all manner of baked goods. Here are some ideas I found that sound tasty (and simple!) to me.
Zucchini “Butter” a.k.a. Zucchini Jam
https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-jennie-cooks-zucchini-b-121770
You can stuff a zucchini with anything, but apparently to most people baked stuffed zucchini means sausage.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/sausage-stuffed-zucchini-boats-2765700
But here is a vegan alternative with quinoa, walnuts and mushrooms
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/vegan-quinoa-stuffed-zucchini/
Zucchini Fritters! I haven’t tried this exact recipe because I usually wing it but it looks like a good one
https://damndelicious.net/2014/04/02/zucchini-fritters/
And if you are going to do a baked good, let’s push the boat all the way out and go for brownies, right? Let’s not pretend this is health food.
https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/chocolate-chip-zucchini-brownies/
Besides harvesting zucchini we have been …. what have we been doing? Really there has been a lot of harvesting. We got the tractor back from the shop (new wiring harness) in time for Randy and Patrick to make five more beds for long beans, Armenian cucumber, eggplant and peppers. Now the tractor is back in the shop because the 4-wheel drive pooped out two days later. One step forward, two steps back. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. It is a lot of full steam ahead just to stay in place, but that is the name of the game in summertime. It can be infuriating to have that To-Do List hanging over my head when one item gets crossed off for every two that get added. No time to dwell on it. The zucchini probably needs to be picked again.
