Zucchini season

Any day now, the rabbits are going to stop biting my zucchini flowers off and we’re going to have an overabundance of the vegetable. I have 3 plants that are going crazy and two that almost seem to be like one of those twins that loses all of its nutrients to the stronger twin. What are those called? Anyway, I think I’m going to have to get rid of those two because they’re not doing enough to waste water on in this Midwestern drought.

Once they do take off and I get more than one zucchini, which is all I’ve had so far, I have this recipe in mind. I haven’t actually tried it but in case you get zucchini sooner than I do, especially in more southern states, I thought I’d pass it along.

Zucchini Fritters

2 tbsp flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups grated zucchini
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
vegetable oil
sour cream

Ina  medium bowl, combine the flour, eggs, salt, and pepper. Add the zucchini, shallots, and parsley and mix well. Heat 1/8 of a cup of vegetable oil in a large skillet. Drop the mixture, by tablespoons, into the hot oil. Cook until each side is golden brown and drain on paper towels. Makes about 30 fritters. Serve hot with sour cream.

Credit: Life’s Little Zucchini Cookbook: 101 Zucchini Recipes by Joan Bestwick

End of the season gardening notes

This is my second year with a large garden. I’ve always grown a few things if I had the space, my first husband had a garden, and my dad had a garden, but I only recently started gardening with the intent of being more self-sufficient. This is also the first year I had any luck at all with seeds.

I’m mostly writing this for myself. Your mileage may vary because we all have different gardening areas, different soil, and different tastes in vegetables.

This was a hard growing season for everyone in my zone. The weather was always really, really hot, or really, really cool for summer. That certainly had an effect on my plants, but that aside, I’m making notes on what to do more of and what to skip next year.

Tomatoes: I’m going to plant more of these and stick to the same variety. This year I had one cherry tomato plant and one beefsteak tomato plant. I got maybe ten beefsteak tomatoes, and they weren’t much bigger than the cherry tomatoes. I’m pretty sure they got cross pollinated. These will be planted in large pots.

Peppers: I need to start these early under a cold form, and I want to be sure to have some bell peppers, some jalapenos, and some pepperonicinis. These should go in the raised beds. Also, I want to build a second bed.

Onions: I’m going to plant these in a raised bed and I’m going to plant a longer row of them.

Lettuce: Same as the onions.

Zucchini: At least 4 plants in the ground, and I won’t try to prop them next year.

Cucumbers: These will go in the ground up against the garage and I want to try to have 4-6 plants.

Herbs: various herbs will go in the raised bed.

Green beans: At least 10 plants, preferably bush beans, next to the garage.

Spinach: In the raised bed, 4-6 plants

Things I’m not going to bother with:

Potatoes (the amount of potatoes you get from a plant cost less bought at the grocery store than the dirt used to build up the plant)
brussels sprouts (they take up too much room for the amount of veggies you get
corn (doesn’t grow enough to be worth the trouble and we have really bad corn borers around here)
peas (you have to have a lot more plants than I have room for to make it worth growing these – 6 plants got me enough for one meal)
yellow squash (every time they started to grow, they’d rot off the plant before they got big enough)
pumpkins (they just don’t grow here)
watermelons (same as pumpkins)

These notes are mostly written for me, so don’t take this as advice or anything. I just need somewhere to store this information where a kid won’t rip it up, so when I’m standing in front of the seed packets next year, I’m not overly excited and buying things that won’t grow.