I have zucchini. This is happiness to me.
The story is, I can’t seem to grow zucchini at all. The dang squash vine borers are horrible. So I out smarted them and planted zucchini in my neighbors garden.
We watched the plant grown and develop beautiful leaves. Watched the flowers open and then the little zucchinis start to develop. In the blink of an eye – shazam – it was time to harvest (you know how sneaky that zucchini can be!) The plants are loaded and I had to leave town! No kidding. All that waiting. The thrill to watch the zucchini start to develop and grow… and I leave town. My neighbors aren’t interested in eating zucchini, in fact, they have never had it before, but they will pick and shred it for me while I am gone.
So, I promise to bake them zucchini bread. I promise to stir fry some for them. Promise Promise promise. It will be great (I love zucchini!) I picked the zucchini in the above photo the day before I left town. I shredded them and stashed it in the freezer.
I am dreaming of zucchini fritters or poor mans crab cakes. I am dreaming of zucchini in my spaghetti sauce. Oh, I am dreaming of zucchini bread.
How are you preserving your fall harvests? How about your zucchini… How do you preserve that so you can use it later?
Sincerely, Emily
I didn’t get any this year:( My mom has a great chocolate zucchini bread recipe that I LOVE! Also zucchini cake with cream cheese icing, and regular zucchini bread. She is also famous among our family and friends for her zucchini relish. Let me know if you want any of the recipes!
Hi DeeDee – would love to see your chocolate zucchini bread recipe AND zucchini cake as well. I have a zucchini relish recipe that we like. You can see the details here: http://emilysincerely.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/zucchini-relish/
I also have a terrific chocolate zucchini bread recipe.
Hi Lorelei – I would love to see your chocolate zucchini bread recipe too. If you can, post it here for others to see as well.
I tried planting zucchini because of all the amazing recipes that exist. I ended up misorganizing my seedlings and we had a frost that killed much of what we had. I planted more seeds… However, when the plants that made it to the garden began to fruit we had not a single zucchini. we had TONS of lemon cucumbers and yellow crook neck squash. Needless to say I wont be growing either of these this coming spring. I couldn’t find a good recipe for the squash except for a crook neck and red potato with goat cheese gratin. It was good but I so wished for zucchini. No preserving of my fall harvest this year because I am way too pregnant to do much. I also have never preserved before. I love your shredding idea and look forward to hearing what others have to say.
Hi Nature Chic – Don’t give up – try growing zucchini again. Maybe get some new seeds to start with. You are right, there are a ton of wonderful recipes out there. The goat cheese gratin you mentioned sounds wonderful. Would you share the recipe?
There are so many ways to preserve things – dehydrating and freezing are among those way. I want to experiment more with dehydrating, but for now, freezing my zucchini is a great way to preserve it for later use (as long as I have enough freezer space!)
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-potato-squash-and-goat-90647
Here is the website I found the squash, red potato and goat cheese gratin recipe at. I hope this will pop up as a link. I loved it but next time I would cut the squash thicker than the potato so that i can have some crunch in the squash and not the potato.
You outsmarted the squash bore!! *hysterical* We should probably try that. We’ve had trouble with them the last couple of years. They usually kill the plant before it produces any blooms (which are quite tasty too). I usually prepare the zucchini with other veggies. My husband likes them julienned and with carrots, onion, potato and celery. I season them with garlic, salt and paprika. It’s nice as a side or scrambled with eggs in the morning.
… darn… now I’m hungry.
Hi Clara – talking about food makes me hungry too! Right now, my favorite way to prepare zucchini is to slice and grill them brushed with olive oil. Up until a few years ago my main way to prepare them was diced with onion and any other veg around and saute them. I like your mixture with the carrots, onion, potato and celery. YUM!
How is that the squash bore doesn’t just trek on over to your neighbor’s zucchini? Congrats though! I’ve still never successfully grown the GREAT ZUCC!
Hi Mrs. WabiSabi! My hope is that the squash vine borer is busy with other things to think about making the trek over to my neighbors garden. The evil winged creature has the capability to travel and I am just thankful that they haven’t made the trek yet. So far so good. I have 6 more zucchini sitting on my counter and the plants look incredibly healthy and happy next door. I don’t want to be overconfident, just thankful at this point to have something to harvest other than peppers.
I’m so jealous! I was having a HUGE turnout on mine and then the squash borers ruined EVERYTHING!
Hi JessicaCRB – I am so glad you were able to harvest something from your plants before you were hit.
Mmmm! I love zucchini (or courgettes as I know them) and could eat them every day!
Hi Liz – ah, yes, courgettes (zucchini!) I chuckle when I think of that. I must have been thinking/writing in American English when I wrote this. A zillion years ago (or so it seems) when traveling, I learned there is more than one way (in English) to say the same thing. Thanks for the reminder and bringing up some great memories for me.
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