Monday, July 19, 2010

Unmitigated Exuberance

I am wondering how I could have been sucked in.  I can only attribute my indescretion to the seductive names in the seed catalog.  I mean, who could resist "Black Beauty" or "Guatemalan Blue Banana" or "Golden Zucchini?"  But that was back in the winter and I had grandiose dreams as I longed for "fresh" and "green" and "succulent..."

And adding insult to injury, I--and it was I, no doubt about it, no shirking responsibility for the current state of affairs--decided to plant half a row of each!!!  That's 25 FEET of ZUCCHINI ---EACH.  Twenty-five feet of Black Beauty, and 25 feet of Golden Zucchini. (the Guatemalan is actually a winter squash and I'll have to deal with that later!)

Need I say, we are buried in ZUCCHINI!  I put a flag on the roof so someone will eventually be able to find us and perhaps dig us out. 

Even the pigs have said they are TIRED OF ZUCCHINI!  Imagine that!  The old sow didn't even get up to come look this morning, MM said.  And, yes, I know you've all heard Paul Harvey's mention of the guy standing on his porch with a shotgun, threatening anyone bringing zucchini,  with mayhem!  We haven't quite reached THAT stage out here JOTOLR.

Actually, I admit during winter, a little zucchini is a delightful addition to soups and stews. The trouble usually is getting it from summer to winter. Most methods of preserving tend to leave it a soggy mess...it's impossible to can it, yes, it can be pickled, freezing it hasn't worked for me.  What has worked, though,  is drying it.  In fact, I do a lot of drying: corn, onions, asparagus, apples, herbs, and zucchini. 

A dehydrator has found a home here. I went for the big one--nine trays at a time with temperature control.



1/4-inch slices before drying...

1/4-inch slices after drying

One slice....

A whole GARDEN of zucchini! In one tiny package.
Even so, a little zucchini goes a long, l-o-n-g way! And I never seem to learn! 


4 comments:

  1. John hasn't actually forbade my planting of zucchini but when I announced that two of my three early zucchini plants had died, he did smile quietly to himself...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Elora -- A great idea for zucchini -- drying that is. What a great dryer you have!! Do you ever have to buy groceries beside staples? -- barbara

    ReplyDelete
  3. So funny, Vicki! What a hoot! Sorry your plants bit the dust, though!

    Barbara...You're spot on, girl: we only buy staples. Eat seasonally; obviously locally! Very locally. We buy sugar, salt, cocoa, flour (though have ground our own, too), etc. We have ground our own cornmeal. The list of purchased stuff is modest. List of what we grow is LONG!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really should heed your warning and due to last seasons zucchini experiences I should know better but darn it I'm getting my seed catalogue orders ready and I've got Zucchini Cocozelle, Zephyr, Florence Long Ribbed and Costa Romanesco on my list! Plus there's the envelopes full of seed from last season stored away....Having a dilemma too with narrowing down the beans and tomatoes. All this new garden space is sooo tempting! Maybe I'll just keep on digging and take out the fence to the half acre stock holding paddock next to the veggie garden :D

    Drying is a great idea although I confess I didn't dry any zucchini last season as I could no longer bear the sight of them come autumn and couldn't imagine I would possibly want to eat another one for several months - fortunately the rest of this household couldn't agree more.

    My dear friend has a wee studio she is opening next summer that is next to a berry farm so has great foot traffic and has asked if I would sell organic produce through her outlet - I guess that assuages the seed catalogue dilemma a bit knowing if we have too many I can at least recoup something on them!
    Would love to know what else you are growing - do you have any heirlooms or unusual varieties?
    Take care
    Julia

    ReplyDelete