When Life Hands You Zucchini...

What's left at our house of this week's harvest. Godzilla Zucchini weighs 2 lb, 6 oz.

Anyone have a recipe for zucchini-ade? Hang on while I Google that... (Of course! Zucchini-tini!)

I may have mentioned at one point that we planted our garden strategically this summer, hoping for a large crop of a smaller variety of veggies (as opposed to a large variety of vegetables with low yields).

Well. Large crop we've got.

My love for zucchini knows no bounds at this point; ask me again in a month and that answer may be different. In fact, zucchini salsa has been the find of the summer already, and it's not even June. This weekend, I whipped up a batch two batches of zucchini bread to share, giardienara pickles, zucchini salsa, and grilled zucchini enchiladas verdes (recipe forthcoming).

And it's funny; my stepmom asked me, after I touted my ten-pound harvest, "How many zucchini plants do you have?" "Six," I said, proudly. She hung her head in her hands. "Oh, wow. My mother told me to only plant one, it's all you'll ever need."

Maybe I've learned a little bit of a lesson for next season (plant only four zucchini plants?). That said, it's extremely rewarding to share this bumper crop with family and friends. I am not exaggerating to say I gave away ten pounds of home-grown vegetables to family this week (no, not just zucchini... a few peppers and squash, too!). It brings me so much happiness to share what we've grown. Tomorrow, I'll tote thirty-six zucchini muffins up to work to share with my colleagues. This evening, the neighbors are coming over for Sunday night zucchini dinner.

Maybe I'm missing my calling. Maybe I'm a little more like my farming ancestors than I first thought. Maybe I just need a big ole plot of land out in the country, and a tractor, and some goats.

But for now, I'm perfectly happy with our little backyard garden and its ridiculous yield of zucchini.