The Minnesota Farm Woman

Maybe I should have and maybe I shouldn’t have. Planted those extra zucchini seeds, I mean. One never knows when it comes to gardening.  I like my zucchini small and succulent, not the zeppelin-sized squash that folks like to give away every summer.  Zucchini can morph from teenie-weenie to humongously huge in 24 hours or less. I swear that it can really happen.  Last year, I didn’t have quite as many zucchini as I wanted, so this year, I put in  a couple more plants.  OK, a few more. With a little extra space in the corner of the front garden, I slipped in a couple of extra seeds. While planting potatoes  in the back garden, I slipped in a couple more, just to be sure. I  staggered the planting times to extend the season of my favorite summer squash, which in northern Minnesota is way too short.  This summer, we have been blessed with lots of rain and warm temperatures which can create the perfect storm when it comes to zucchini.  Both the green and the yellow varieties started fruiting last week and so far I have picked many pounds and there’s no end in sight.  Although I love zucchini, I have a husband who is less than enthusiastic about it, no matter how it is prepared. I’ve tried sauteing it  with onions and garlic, topping it with grated parmesan cheese, but he won’t touch it. I’ve tried stuffing and baking it, and he won’t even take one bite.   I’ve tried marinating it in olive oil, spices, and lemon juice and grilling it and he won’t eat a morsel.  I’ve tried shredding it and hiding it in pasta sauces and……well, let’s keep the sauce part our little secret, shall we? He really likes my pasta sauce. If everyone else’s zucchini season is going as well as mine, we need to watch out for garden “gifts”.  If your doorbell rings and nobody is there, look down and watch your step, for there may be a  10 pound zucchini placed on your back steps.  If you leave your car doors unlocked while you run errands, you are likely to find several in your back seat.  I have heard of commuters in larger cities dressing their squash in baseball caps and sunglasses and zipping to work using the faster carpool lane.  I know you are probably wondering about the polka-dot watermelon by now, and how I was going to cleverly ease it into my zucchini story.  I am trying an heirloom variety of small watermelon called “Moon and Stars”. It really does have large and small polka-dots on both the leaves and the melons, hence the name.  I don’t have any melons yet, just lots of blooms. Too bad watermelon doesn’t  grow like zucchini around here, because I sure wouldn’t mind a few of them in my garden or left on my back steps. Despite the near-tropical conditions of our unusual summer, the best I can probably hope for is a bumper crop of zucchini and a lot of watermelon wishful thinking.