Let's Hear it for the Zucchini

 

Let’s Hear It for the Zucchini

Zucchini photo by Steve Apps

 

Mention zucchini and you usually evoke a smile.  Who hasn’t heard of wheelbarrow loads of zucchini summer squash?  Well, I hadn’t.  As a kid, we had about every vegetable possible in our big garden.  But no zucchini.  My guess is that Pa thought squash was something you harvested in the fall, and stored in the cellar for winter eating. I’m sure he and my mother couldn’t wrap their minds around eating squash in the summer.

When I began vegetable gardening at the farm I own now, friends suggested I must grow some zucchini.  “It is the thing to do,” these friends said, never as much as hinting about the reputation for this summer squash that I somehow had avoided.

So, I planted a long row of zucchini, and they grew and grew and soon covered their end of the garden with beautiful big yellow flowers, and then long and quickly growing longer cucumber-like, and nearly ax handle-long fruit. I carried an arm load of zucchini to the cabin, hoping that Ruth would know what to do with them.  She didn’t. We were soon nearly buried with zucchini, until Ruth discovered a recipe for zucchini bread, which, according to the grandkids, tastes better than cookies.

These days we grow just a few zucchini plants in our garden.  We have them more under control, mostly.   Ruth makes zucchini bread, Sue makes zucchini cake, Natasha makes zucchini cookies, and we enjoy the occasional casserole that has zucchini in it.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  What would a garden be without zucchini to talk about?

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase my books, go to your local bookstore, order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.