Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Day 185: They're Coming!!!!

Zucchini, that is. All these yellow blooms will turn into zucchini, one of my favorite vegetables. But zucchini can be sneaky! You have to watch it. Every minute. Maybe even set up camp and watch it all night with a flashlight. Or it multiplies like crazy, and goes from nice tender, little zucchini, to humongous, baseball bat size too-icky-to-eat zucchini!

When I was a kid, my Italian grandmother use to cook zucchini flowers for us. Basically, you fry the flower and it tastes surprisingly like fried eggs!

I'm amazed that I even like zucchini anymore! Some nearly 30 years ago, I planted an enormous garden. I planted it because I read a book that scared the toes off of me: "How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Times." Basically, a "we're all doomed" kind of book. So I planted a garden so my dh (boyfriend, at the time) and I wouldn't starve to death. (Trust me; we haven't!) I planted about 30 zucchini plants.

But there was so much zucchini, I couldn't give it all away! I took to sneaking it on my coworkers' desks when they weren't looking! But after awhile, they wised up and started returning it. . . .

My frugal streak wouldn't let me throw it away.

Then I decided (still, thanks to "the coming bad times") to dehydrate the zucchini. I stored all this shredded, dried, zucchini in those plastic-sealer bags. And packed it in empty coffee cans. Lots and lots of rows of dried, shredded, zucchini. Dried, leathery, bland, zucchini. Which I later reconstituted and tried to bake into breads, or cook in casseroles, or. . . . ?????

All I can say is that my darling boyfriend married me anyway!
And now, we only plant 2 zucchini plants. period.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great shot. I would love to do a garden especially with my kids but we don't have any room...
cari

For Over 29 Years... said...

That is so funny. I would love to grow a garden. Maybe I'll have to come to you for pointers one day

amazing grace said...

wow--how interesting--you fry the plant??? never heard of that....:)

great post!

Debbi said...

I love zucchini too! I'm so impressed with your gardening! I love fresh vegetables, but not the weeding!:) I have had a very busy month with travelling with family and for work (Just got back from American School Counselor Assoc. conference in Atlanta). Hopefully I can just be at home for the next month and get a few things done before school starts again. Thanks for the comment on the Photo Blog - I just put out a few feelers with friends to do some portfolio-building and see if it goes anywhere. I love taking pictures and learning, so this gives me a chance to give my kids a break from the camera! :) I learned so much in just the few sessions I have done. Definitely stepping outside of my comfort zone -ICK! I promise to be in touch after the 4th so we can try to get together!

Liz said...

Love your story, it sounds like something my Mum would do.

Sara said...

ROFL! That story is hilarious! Probably because I can totally see myself doing the same.
I keep giggling to myself, thinking of coffee cans filled with shredded dehydrated zuccini! Too funny!

And we still fry zucchini flowers in my DH's family too!

Mom2Drew said...

Wish I could have you ship some to me. Looks great!

Amy said...

Great shot of your zucchini! I once had a coworker that would bring baked goodies year-round...one year she brought the most amazing apple pie. After we finished it she let us all know we had just eaten zucchini pie! It was so good and I'm pretty sure I have the recipe, if you want it. I also LOVE zucchini bread, makes my mouth water just thinking about how yummy it is!

p.s. the purple flowers I put up today must be Lupine. I had a bunch of comments saying that so I did a google search and I think they're correct. :)

jewels said...

GREAT story! :) We are reading "the square foot gardening" book right now, and learning about zucchinis! :) I've never had the flowers before, but I'd love to try them sometime!

Cheers,
jewels

Gypsy Girl(Brenda) said...

Nice shot. You cracked me up with your journaling. He married you anyway LOL. I couldn't cook or clean and mine still married me.

It must really be hard to have ds so far away yet what he is doing is something to be so proud of.

Jeanne said...

LOL...love the story to go along with the photo!

I'm not a fan of zucchini, but one year, hubby's cuke plant died and he asked me to get him another one. I did...only what I thought was a cuke was actually zucchini. Haven't lived that one down yet! Well...the leaves looked similar!

Jess said...

ROFL! I loved your story, that totally sounds like something I would do! I love fried zucchini... YUM!

Michelle said...

love your shot of the zuccini plant. and LOL about sneaking the zuccini onto your co-workers desks!

Suzy said...

Yummy it's "one" of my favorite veggies to! Great shot!

Margaret said...

LOVE your zucchini stories! It's amazing how quickly it can multiply and multiply and multiply. A guy I worked with a long time ago used to bring zucchini in and leave it in the office hoping someone would take it home. One huge one sat there forever. Someone finally brought in some Groucho glasses and we put them on the zucchini. He was our summer mascot. :)