Awash in Squash!

The squash vine borer (SVB) is a terrible pest.  It's a red and black moth that lays eggs at the base of the squash.  The eggs hatch and the larvae bore into the stem, hollowing out the plant, depriving it of nutrition.  One day everything in the squash patch is wonderful.  The next day, you walk out and the big beautiful leaves are wilted and the squash plant is dead!

I wanted to get ahead of the squash vine borers, so I planted early.  An ill-timed frost wiped out the big leaves, but they grew back.  I administered some of my homegrown liquid fertilizer and they grew like bad weeds.  I even had to put up some barriers so they don't crowd out my tomatoes!  And the harvest is really coming in.  This is a daily haul!:  

We are giving them away left and right, but we're eating a bunch of them, too.  We always like to try new recipes.  I'll show you two things we did recently that were hits and will be added into our rotation of dishes we cook.  I'll post links of the recipes if you'd like to try them out for yourself.

The first is zucchini bread.  It has nuts and cinnamon along with 2 cups of shredded zucchini.  If you have kids or grandkids that are picky about vegetables, well here's a sure-fire way to "sneakily" get them to LOVE zucchini!

I cut a slice about 10 minutes after removing from the oven and slathered some butter on top.  Delicious.  Click on the link for the recipe: Zucchini Bread

We had a whole bunch of shredded zucchini left over since the zucchini bread recipe only called for two cups.  So tonight I made zucchini fritters with the rest of them, and I'll be darned if I didn't just about eat them all myself!  Just a few simple ingredients and easy to do.  Here they are frying in a cast iron skillet.  One note: Next time I'll use a smaller zucchini.  You can see the seeds in the fritters below and they can be a little tough.  Zucchini grow really fast, though, so you have to keep and eye on them or they'll get huge overnight.

I like to let them get dark brown and crispy.  They still retain the bright, colorful green.  Fresh stuff from the garden is so tasty and colorful.

You can put sour cream on top, but I poured some homemade hot sauce we made using Anaheim Peppers.  It was scrumptious!

Here is the recipe that I used: Zucchini Fritters Recipe   Unless the squash vine borers wipe us out, we'll have a bumper crop of both zucchini and yellow squash.  If we find any recipes that we like, we'll share.  Maybe a zucchini martini?  Or a zucchini milkshake?  Perhaps not.

Spring Squash

We plant Black Beauty Zucchini and two types of yellow squash - straight neck and crookneck.  I like to plant them early to try to get out ahead of the squash borer.  That devilish critter burrows into the stem.  One day you have beautiful, productive squash plants and the next day you walk out to find your plants decimated.  Heat also plays a number on the squash plants and temperatures are already 80 degrees by 8am and in the 90's in the afternoon.  That heat causes my squash to wave the white flag and melt into the ground.  

Our squash harvest was exceptional this year.  Here's what they looked like exactly a month ago:

Beneath the canopy of squash leaves were numerous blooms and squash of all sizes.

Each and every day, we'd pick baskets of squash.  We ate it.  We brought baskets to church to give away.  We knocked on the neighbor's door and gave them a bag of squash.  We gave some to family members.  All that and we still have a refrigerator full.  Tricia talked today of making a squash casserole that we love and freezing it.

As with most things, we have favorite recipes we cook to use up the abundance.  Just yesterday, Tricia made a zucchini lasagna.  Sometimes she's made this and used zucchini sliced thin in place of lasagna noodles.  This time she put the sliced zucchini in addition to the noodles.  She hit it out of the park with that!  We've come to love zucchini cake.  It's a Bundt cake that is so sweet and moist.  You'd never know it had zucchini in it if we didn't tell you.

Well, all good things come to an end.  I noticed today with sadness that our squash plants have all died due to a combination of the squash borer and the heat.  It was good while it lasted...

From Asparagus to Zucchini

While picking snap beans the other day, I looked down and saw the last of the asparagus coming up.  Most of it matures quickly now as it's warming up.  It's easy to miss.  But I got the asparagus, snapped it off, and ate it raw, right there in the snap bean row.

I finished the beans and remembered that I needed to check the squash.  They're growing ever so fast as well.

I had planned on weighing the garden produce this year, just to start tracking that, but, to be honest, it's too much work, ha ha.  Here's a big basket of nothing but zucchini I picked.  There will be more coming in tomorrow.  Tricia kind of gave me "the stink eye" when I came in with this.  "What are we going to do with all this," she said.  "We're gonna eat it," I replied.

We also give it away.  Today we walked some over to one of our neighbors.  Tricia also made Zucchini Fritters tonight.  We ate an entire zucchini squash, I'm not ashamed to say.  Zucchini Fritters are like crab cakes, without the crab.  You grate zucchini, put it in a colander, salt it, and let the water drain off.  Then you add flour, cheese, eggs, garlic and seasoning and stir.  Then make little patties and fry them.  My wife made a sour cream ranch dressing that we dipped them into.  Very good!

Since we've been using the dehydrator to preserve a lot of the fresh produce coming in, we decided to dehydrate some zucchini.  The zucchini was cut into slices like you see in the measuring cup below and were blanched according to the time instructed.

Blanching aids in protecting flavor, color, texture in the vegetables.  It inactivates enzymes that cause vegetables to deteriorate.  Although the vegetables don't stay in the water for long, we were wondering if you lose water soluble vitamins during blanching?  The answer is yes.  Although it takes a little longer, the next time we blanch, we'll try steam blanching.  Steam blanching allows the vegetables to retain vitamins otherwise lost in water blanching.

After removing and putting in ice water to immediately stop the cooking process, the blanched zucchini is drained and placed on the trays of the dehydrator.  I don't know how this is going to work out.  Zucchini has a very high water content.  It seems to me this process is akin to dehydrating ice cubes.

Twelve hours later, the dehydrated zucchini is done.

Wowzers!  There's nothing left.  If I still read newspapers, I could read one through the zucchini.  It is transparent and thin.  There's nothing left to it.

Five full trays of cut up zucchini yielded a PINT of dried zucchini.

Good for adding to soups and stews, I imagine, and it'll keep.

Another Family Favorite Zucchini Recipe

Yesterday we were talking about the blooms of the squash plants and today we'll continue with the squash theme and I'll show you a portion of the squash patch.  We have several rows of yellow crookneck squash, straight neck squash, grey zucchini and black beauty zucchini.  We picked some of the first squash a couple of days ago and grilled them with some butter and minced garlic that we brushed on.  They were very nice.

Here is the squash patch.  I've mulched pretty thick with hay to keep the squash off the ground as sometimes I experience rot from the fruit touching the moist dirt.

The squash patch

Today we'll harvest a couple of the grey zucchini.  I like to pick them before they get too big.  If you leave them on the plant, they'll grow to be monsters, but the younger ones are tender, have smaller seeds and are just better for eating.

Perfect eating size

While I was searching through the patch for others, I set two of them down in the hay walkway against the fence and it attracted a crowd of on-lookers.  If they could've gotten their heads through the fence, you would have seen a number of holes in the zucchini!

What do we have here?

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." - Matthew 6:13  I really shouldn't have done that to those poor birds!

Supper for us - NOT the chickens!

Back in July of 2013 in THIS BLOG POST we showed you a recipe we like using zucchini.  Today we'll show you yet another one.  Today, we decided to make up some zucchini fritters.  They are really nice, easy to make and can be made with things you'll commonly have in your kitchen.  First we grated up the two zucchini in the food processor and the two yielded about 6 cups.  We put the grated zucchini in a colander and sprinkled with kosher salt and tossed.  This will make the zucchini drain off a lot of the liquid.

Draining off the liquid

After about 15 minutes of draining, we dump into a mixing bowl and add 2 cups of bread crumbs, two eggs, 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, and chopped up onions and peppers.  Feel free to ad lib here.  We added some sugar snap peas and chopped green onions along with a couple teaspoons yogurt.  We also added some dried Criolla Sella pepper to give it some spice.

Mixing up all the ingredients

Then, using your hands, make some patties similar to the way you would make a hamburger patty.  Squish them on paper towels to remove as much liquid as possible from the patties.  Add some butter to a cast iron skillet and get it heated up.  Drop the fritters into the buttered skillet and allow to cook, flipping when they firm up. When golden brown on both sides, it's time to ring the dinner bell and round up the troops.

Deliciousness!

You can dip them in soy sauce or make a remoulade, if you wish, but I wanted the flavor of the freshly picked vegetables to come through so I ate them plain.  They are best while still warm.  They are sort of like a crab cake, minus the crab.

Come and Get It!

I'd advise on doubling or tripling the recipe as they go quickly.  Bon appetit!

Getting the Squash Seedlings in the Ground

We had a scare last week with temperatures dipping into the 30's and I'll have to admit I was worried about the tomatoes, beans, watermelons and other items that I have planted in the garden.  Some show some slight effects of the cold weather in terms of 'burned' edges of the leaves due to the cold, but I think they'll all recover nicely, especially with temperatures hitting the low 80's all this week.  We ought to see some good growth - both in the vegetables in the garden and the the grass in the pasture.

With the threat of cold weather hopefully in the rear-view mirror, it was time to get some squash in the ground.  I had planted several types of yellow squash (straight neck & crookneck), several types of zucchini squash (Black Beauty & Gray), and a couple winter squash (Spaghetti & Butternut) into seed pots a few weeks ago and they've been growing on top of the cold frame on the patio.  The leaves were turning yellow and their root system was eager to get out of the little containers and spread out in the ground.  Let's get after it.

Benjamin helped me as I used my hoe to pull the decomposing leaves and organic matter that filled the valley between the rows up onto the top of the rows.  It smelled musty and was teeming with earthworms - a nice growing medium for healthy vegetables.

Pulling fertile soil up onto the tops of the rows.

While you can still make out the shapes of leaves in the compost, if you crumble a handful, it just becomes dirt.

Composted leaves and hay

Just to give the squash a good start, I dumped a bucketful of some organic garden soil on top at each three foot measurement where I'll be planting squash.  Admittedly, this is probably the same stuff that I showed you in the previous picture just composted longer and ground fine.  I asked Tricia to purchase this and this step is probably unnecessary, but I want to give the plants the best possible start.  This also made a mound that will lift the squash plants out of the lower part of the garden where the squash will be planted.  Rainfall on the southern end of the garden can damage crops since the beds aren't raised as high as on the northern end.

Organic Garden Soil

Then I simply use a plastic fork to remove the squash seedling from the seed pot and plant in the soil.  You can see the yellowish tint to the leaves.  They need some nutrients in the good soil to give them a kick-start.

Squash Seedling

The next thing I do is very important.  I go out to the hay bale in the pasture and scoop up lots of hay that the cows would otherwise waste and I bring it back to the row and completely encircle the seedling.  This provides mulch that will help retain soil moisture and inhibit weed growth.  I also find that it helps when the squash begin producing.  Sometimes squash that comes in contact with the ground will rot.  The hay acts as a cushion to protect the squash from excess moisture on the soil that causes rot.

Hay used as a mulch around the squash plant

Now all we need to do is give the squash a little drink of water and then we'll just sit back and let it grow.

A little drink

And now we're back where we started in the first picture.  I wanted to show you that I'll fill in the valley between each row with chopped up leaves that will serve as the walkway and will turn into next year's dirt/organic matter.  You can see three rows of squash planted to the left of the row I'm currently planting to give you an idea of the leaves and hay that I use to provide a good growing environment and to keep the soil covered.

Using leaves and straw as a soil covering

Now I've just got to get the cucumbers seedlings planted, along with some sweet corn. I also have some Birdhouse gourd and Loofah gourd seedlings that I need to get out of the seed pots and into the ground. Times 'a tickin'...

Zucchini Casserole - A Family Favorite

We have lots of fresh squash coming in from the garden right now.  We steam them with butter and onions and make a squash casserole that was famous at the Black Eyed Pea Restaurant.  One of the things that we like to do with zucchini is make a casserole that my grandmother, that we affectionately called Bumby, always made.  She'd pull this out of the oven and we would wolf it down in no time flat.  Tricia got her recipe and we think of Bumby every time we make it.

 

We have the normal dark green/black zucchini planted and I also grow another one shown below that I think is called a grey zucchini.  I can't figure out why because it doesn't look grey to me.  Anyway, let's get started.  

Grey Zucchini

First thing you want to do is get out the food processor and grate up the zucchini and dump into a big mixing bowl.  You'll need 3 cups of grated zucchini.


Grated Zucchini

If you look closely at the picture below, you can see the tell tale signs of a delicious recipe.  It is one that is hand-written on a 3 x 5 note card that is all stained up from dropping ingredients on it while fixing the dish.  That, my friends, is evidence of a good recipe.  The recipe calls for the following ingredients after the grated zucchini:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onions 

Combine the ingredients into the bowl with the grated zucchini. 



Stained recipe

 Adding the last few ingredients.

Grating some Parmesan cheese into the bowl

After it has been stirred up, spoon it out into a casserole dish and smooth it all out.  Now it is ready to put into an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes or until golden brown. 


Spreading out the squash mixture in a casserole dish

Look at this lovely sight!  It is golden brown.  The smell wafting from the oven beckons everyone to the kitchen.  Would you ever think that you could cook zucchini in a way that kids would be excited about it?  Probably not.

There's already a piece missing!

Here is the finished product paired with other delicacies fresh picked (or butchered) off of our land - homegrown okra stewed with heirloom tomatoes and fresh chicken livers pan fried in butter and topped with fresh Pico de Gallo.



Zucchini Casserole plated up

This casserole is perfect for bringing to a potluck dinner or 'Dinner on the Grounds' at church.  Everyone will love it, I guarantee it.  We never have leftovers.

Mulching in the Garden

I like to use mulch in the garden.  When I have excess hay or if I let the grass get too tall before mowing and have to rake up the grass clippings, I put it in a wheel barrow and cart it into the garden.  Sometimes the cows won't eat the very bottom of the round bale.  I guess it is sort of like how some people won't eat the 'heel' of a loaf of bread.  Well, I put it to good use.


Leftover hay

Once I get it in the garden, I'll scoop it up by hand and place it all around the vegetables that are growing.  It takes a little while, but the benefits are well worth the effort.

First, it provides a barrier to crowd out weed growth.  The sunlight can't reach the weeds and they don't grow.  This saves hours of back-breaking labor pulling out nut sedge and other lousy weeds.  Too bad it doesn't work on weeds that grow from rhizomes like Bermuda grass...

Second, it conserves the moisture in the soil as the sun isn't able to penetrate down to the ground level and dry up the dirt.  This is especially helpful during periods of drought and enables your plants to remain healthy, cool and watered for longer periods between having to water them.

Third, the hay, straw or other organic material you use as a mulch becomes part of next year's soil.  It is a helpful amendment that while it decays, encourages earthworms and beneficial soil bacteria.


Hay placed as mulch around the squash plants

Finally, it solves the problem of vegetable rot.  Prior to mulching, if a vegetable such as zucchini (below) touched the wet ground, it would get an unsightly blemish where it touched the ground and would begin to go bad.  Well, when you mulch, the vegetables are healthy and beautiful from the garden to your table.
  

Zucchini!  Yum!

I'll continue to add mulch all year long, realizing all of the benefits of adding organic matter to the soil.
Thank you very mulch!