Zucchini Days (Daze)

The garden is going great guns. Last year in May we had very little rain, and of course the rest of the summer was pretty dry. This May we've had rain every week and the tomato plants are already putting on fruit. The watermelon and cantaloupe plants are up and zinging...the cucumbers and beans are grabbing the fence and the okra is popping up in neat little rows. Everyone has a method for preparing okra seed, which is very hard shelled. Some soak them in bleach overnight (yes, really) some soak them in water overnight. The method I have had the most success with is so simple...I simply fill several ice trays with water and drop at least two seeds in each little cubby hole in the tray and freeze them for a day or so. When we get the row prepared, I take out the ice trays (one tray at a time) and plant the ice cube. The cube melts and waters the planting spot thoroughly and in about ten days up pops the plant(s). If I thin the plants to one plant per drill after they have four leaves and transplant the "thinned" ones to their own separate drill (hole). So anyway, this looks like it's going to be a humdinger of a season since most of the plants are up and bounding away. The other day I bought four little zucchini plants (that's courgettes to my British friends) and that's probably three plants too many. The first year we actually planted a garden Mac opted for three different kinds of squash...Patty Pan which is white and has a scalloped shape...it's very good battered and fried...as good as fried green tomatoes in my opinion. Then we grew yellow straight neck squash...some prefer crookneck but I can't tell any difference in taste. The straight neck is easier to prepare for canning...more uniform. Then I chose the zucchini. I love zucchini bread and always had to buy the zucchini in the grocery store, but I was determined that this particular year we would have our own plants. I seem to remember that we planted six plants and they grew quickly and flowered before the other squash. Every day when I came in from work I'd walk out to the garden to check the progress. My first zucchini was a marvel to behold. That lovely deep green color, the rather delicate veggie lay nestled in its bed of straw. I wondered if more would come on to accompany the first one because what in the world could you do with one zucchini? Place it on a pedestal and admire it till it was reduced to mush and compost? I had no recipes for one zucchini. In fact I only had one recipe for zucchini period...zucchini bread, which is rather a lot like banana bread but with a distinctly not banana flavor, and a green tinge to it if you leave on the skin...which I do. So I started going through my cookbooks (and let me tell you I have shelves upon shelves of cookbooks) looking up zucchini recipes so that in the off chance we had a successful crop of them I'd know what to do. Did you know you can make zucchini pizza? Yes, and zucchini casserole, fried zucchini, stewed zucchini (yuck) and zucchini stuffing. I kid you not. So everyday, here I come to the garden and wow, there are three zucchini .Then there are nine zucchini and suddenly I can't pick them fast enough and everyone is sick to death of my zucchini bread and zucchini pizza...no one wants a bite of zucchini cassarole and I have been threatened by Mac that he will set fire to the garden if I bring in one more mess (I'm not quite sure how this term came about, but a mess is enough to feed everyone at your table) of zucchini. So now my six little plants are producing enough to feed the county and I'm giving it away to anyone who stops by, I'm taking it to work to share with the entire Sheriff's Department and still they come. People are warned not to drive by my house with their car windows open (and I deny ever chasing anyone down and throwing zucchini through their open car windows, it's a lie and I'll swear to it with my last breath). The last of the season came and hiding under one of the plants was the biggest zucchini I had ever seen. It weighed every bit of three pounds and measured about fourteen inches long. Enough time had passed that I had forgotten how overrun with the green squash we had been. I stood up holding that giant progeny of the zucchini vine and watched as Mac approached me. Grinning from ear to ear, I held it out to him proudly. "Look honey, we can use this for seed next year!" He took it from me and walked over to the blazing burn barrel where he unceremoniously dropped it into the flames. "Over my dead body," he calmly replied.

Due to popular demand...here is the recipe for Zucchini Bread...it's the best one I tried...hope you enjoy it Mary!
INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.