Zucchini Recipes, Anyone?

Zucchini Squash from my Vermicomposting Garden

This year I’ve been enjoying a bountiful harvest of garden crops thanks to my vermicomposting trenches. Only problem I’m going to have is trying to put all my produce to good use (have been giving a lot of it away as well).

I had been enjoying lots of small zucchinis on the BBQ earlier this summer, but then kinda let the plants go wild. In no time at all I ended up with a bunch of monsters (I can assure you that the picture above doesn’t do them any justice). While certainly impressive, I’m not really sure what to do with them – when they are that big I don’t really enjoy them as much on the BBQ. If anyone has any yummy recipes the for big zucchinis I’d certainly love to hear about them.

Just as an aside – for all of you out there with your own vermicomposting biz (or for those of you thinking about getting into it), I highly recommend growing lots of stuff with vermicompost so you can show your customers when they come to pick up worms/vermicompost. I had some people come by on the weekend, one of them being an avid organic gardener (ie she is much more talented at gardening than myself), and they were blown away. I had the zucchinis sitting in a wheelbarrow (hadn’t even planned to point them out) and when the gentleman spotted them he ran over for a closer look. He couldn’t believe how big some of them were. I sent them home with one, along with a bunch of nice tomatoes – yet another great advantage of having all this produce available when selling worms. Obviously these people were already intending to purchase worms, but I bet they’ll tell even more people about my business based on their visit here.
😎

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Comments

    • John Augenstein
    • September 9, 2008

    Bentley,
    We’ve been blessed with a surplus of zukes for several years running. What we came up with this year is a dehydrator with about 10 slide out drawers. It works really well on all manner of summer squash, onions, apples, peaches and tomatos. With peaches and tomatos we have to line the drawers with baker’s parchment paper. I digress. Some zukes we leave plain. Some are sprinkled with various spices. A little salt and pepper, Tony’s Creole Seasoning, allspice.
    When the above foods are dehydrated, the flavor concentrates. They are good for snacks as is or dipped in a little salad dressing (I prefer ranch, but 1000 island is also really good), and also good for cooking.
    John in New Mexico

    • Bentley
    • September 9, 2008

    Wow, John – that sounds like a great way to deal with a surplus of crops.
    How does you dehydrator work? Did you buy it or make it?

    B

    • John Augenstein
    • September 9, 2008

    Bently,
    I got the dehydrator on Ebay.
    “STX DEHYDRA 600W” 10 TRAY JERKY & FOOD DEHYDRATOR
    Sale price:$92.20
    Shipping & Handling:UPS Ground $28.80
    It has a small fan and thermostat adjustable heater coil in the back and blows warm air from back to front. So far we have been really pleased with the results.
    Hear’s another thing you can do. Wash the squash, cut off both ends, cut out any blemishes, slice them into 1/4 inch discs, put them in zip sealable freezer bags and freeze them. Later on you can take them out and fry them, use them in soups and stews, layer them in a baking dish and sprinkle cheese and bread cumbs or bacon bits or both and bake them. Go online and search for zucchini recipes. There’s lots out there.
    Just as a point of interest, we have about 18 gallons of frozen zucchinis in our freezer. Anything that isn’t gone by the time they start to make next year will go to the worms, but I don’t think there will be any left-overs.
    John in New Mexico

    • Cindy Anthony
    • September 10, 2008

    I have an 8″ pleco in my goldfish tank who loves to consume a small zuchinni each week. He would short circuit if he saw the zukes in your pic. My pre-worm garden failed to produce even 1…however, I have had a worm bin all summer, and I started a scaled down trough in 1 section of my garden… you’re inspiring me to give them a try again next summer.

    • Jacques Bands
    • September 10, 2008

    Hi Bentley,

    When taking photos of an object and one wants to portrait the size, it helps to put an object of know size, eg matchbox or coin next to it, to indicate the relevant size. Obviously if the object is bigger, your comparision object needs to be bigger eg elephant next to a car.

    From sunny South Africa – yeah summer is back.

    • Bentley
    • September 10, 2008

    John – thanks for the info. Sounds like a cool system. As for freezing – unfortunately we don’t have a freezer other than the small one above our fridge. I would love to freeze all our tomatoes as well, but will have limited room for them.

    Cindy – that is funny. I didn’t realize there were fish that would eat vegetables (although, I guess a zucchini is technically a fruit – haha). Glad to hear you’ll be trying out your own vermi-trench

    Jacques – definitely a good point. I was actually thinking of doing this, but nothing immediately came to mind. I do have a shot with a tomato included, but of course tomatoes come in all range of sizes (and this one was quite large).
    🙂

    • Bob Packard
    • September 11, 2008

    Hey Bentley, the picture of those zukes in the wheelbarrow is a pretty fair size comparison. I’ve never seen any at the supermarket that were as long as a wheelbarrow bed. Keep on growing.

    • Debbie
    • September 12, 2008

    I love these comments.

    I have never grown zucchini, cuz I didn’t think I liked it, but when I have a backyard again, I’ll certainly start learning to love it.

    You can Google “solar dehydrator” and there are TONS of instructions on how you can make your own. You only need one day of sun (two for watery things like tomatoes). You’ll probably find a whole new blogworld out there for people who are urban gardening and urban homesteading.

    Here is a suggestion and instructions on freezing zucchini. This blogger claims:

    “I’m the only person on the planet who tends an enormous kitchen garden and yet bought thirty zucchini this summer.”

    http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-freeze-zucchini-my-one-claim-to.html

    And Lastly, I recommend a book for all kitchen gardeners called _Animal, Vegetable, Miracle_ by Barbara Kingsolver.

    Her teenage daughter made zucchini chocolate chip cookies for her 8 year old sister’s birthday guests and swore they never knew the difference.

    http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Zucchini%20Cookies.pdf

    Have fun!!! Let me know if you try any of these.

    • Bentley
    • September 12, 2008

    Wow Debbie,
    Thanks for sharing all that great info!
    8)

    • Patrick McGuire
    • September 18, 2008

    Check out this great recipe for zucchini bread. You can store it in the freezer and it is really delicious.
    http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moms-Zucchini-Bread/Detail.aspx

  1. Here’s a recipe we used to work before having to kick gluten. Made properly, people won’t know it’s *not* apple cobbler. In fact, that’s how I was first introduced to it.

    Ingredients:
    * 4 cups flour
    * 1 ½ cups sugar (?)
    * 1 ½ cups butter
    * 8 cups peeled and diced zucchini – no seeds
    * 2/3 cup lemon juice
    * 1 cup sugar (?)
    * 1 tsp cinnamon
    * ½ tsp nutmeg
    * dash (< 1/8 tsp) cloves

    Directions:
    1. Mix flour, sugar (?) and butter and set aside
    2. Cook zucchini and lemon juice in a pan until tender
    3. Mix zucchini with sugar (?), cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
    * Cook about 2 minutes more
    4. Remove from heat, add ½ cup flour mixture to thicken
    5. Grease a 9×13 pan and:
    * Add ½ of the flour mixture
    * Pour zucchini on top
    * Pour the remaining ½ of the mixture on top of the zucchini layer.
    6. Bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes

    Cool and store in the fridge. Eat within a week.

  2. My goodness…I shouldn’t go posting comments when I’m half asleep. My grammar goes right down the drain, and I forget to mention that the recipe is called:

    Zucchini Mock Apple Cobbler

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