Yes We Are Almost Done Harvesting Zucchini

This is why my mom developed this cookbook when I was a kid:

Dad did the caricature.

Blanche.

We sold this cookbook at farmers markets during the zucchini season in Champaign. I remember our booth was by a huge crate of corn.  I remember my first smell of corn husks and eating wax from a honeycomb.

Three ways to get your zucchini out of sight and into your belly: 

1. Grate and Freeze each in its own separate freezer bag.  Thawed, this can be used for making zucchini bread later in the winter.
2. Blanch and Freeze!  FIrst, chop each zucchini or goldy squash coarsely, drop in boiling water for 1 minute, and then transfer to a bowl of cold water with a slotted spoon. THEN freeze in containers or freezer bags.  (Freezing willy nilly without the blanching will result in very weird texture and is only appropriate to thaw for baking as above.) When you are ready, pull out the zucchini, drop into soups or stir fry.
3. Zucchini Fries, recipe here:

•    2 zucchini

•    1 egg white

•    1/4 cup milk

•    1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

•    1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

•    Vegetable cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425°. Cut zucchini into 3-inch sticks. Whisk an egg white in a small bowl, and add milk. Combine Parmesan and seasoned breadcrumbs in a separate bowl. Dip zucchini sticks into egg mixture, and then roll in breadcrumb mixture. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray, and place zucchini on sheet. Bake for 25–30 minutes or until golden brown.

If you buy zucchini or yellow squash at any old grocery store, there is a substantial probability that it is genetically modified.  The questionable GMO. 

GMOs are "genetically modified organisms" and, as defined by The Non GMO Project, are "plants or animals created through the gene splicing techniques of biotechnology aka genetic engineering.  This experimental technology merges DNA from different species, creating unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding."

The Non GMO Project has listed the following as plants in our marketplace that are currently in commercial production:

• Alfalfa (first planting of GMO alfalfa was in 2011)
• Canola (about 90% of US crop)
• Corn (about 88% of US crop)
• Cotton (about 90% of US crop)
• Papaya (most of Hawaiian crop, about 988 acres)
• Soy (about 94% of US crop)
• Sugar Beets (about 95% of US crop)
• Zucchini and Yellow Squash (about 25000 acres)

Thankfully, if you are a Peasants' Plot CSA member, know that our seed comes from a certified organic seed company that pledges to preserve the state of organic seed and oppose GMOs.

Upcoming on the farm:  various winter squash like butternut and buttercup, fall greens like arugula and spinach and possibly the ever-popular mustard mix, more varieties of kale, leeks and tomatoes.

Basil

Butternut

New beds, newly seeded for fall greens.

Red Russian kale, just now recovering from flea beetle damage.

You know what this is.

Field of tomato plants.