Zucchini... out the Wazoo

 

 

I've often heard that you can't kill squash and zucchini and that you're inundated with them when you grown them.  I've never had the best of luck with them in the past.  The only reason we have so many fruits is that we have a lot of  plants. 

 

Stink bugs seem to be everywhere here and they love to eat everything, especially squash.  Plus it seems like several fruits on each plant mold.  So if we only had a few plants we wouldn't have much squash or zucchini to eat I'm sure.  I think we have about 20 plants producing right now and more coming up. And butternut squash are about 7 inches long.  Fingers crossed that nothing eats them!

 

Every couple of days I am blanching and freezing them.  In the pic above I have 9+ pounds bagged up ready for the freezer.  We're eating it fresh just about every day too.  We may get tired of it soon, but in the winter we will be happy to have lots of it in the freezer.

 

I made fried zucchini the other night and they turned out good, even though I forgot to add salt.  I made them by dredging the slices first in seasoned flour, then dipping them in beaten egg, then a final coating in panko crumbs.  My thermometer broke so I had to wing it on the temp.  As you can see they are a wee bit darker than I would prefer.  I made home made sour cream ranch to dip them in.  Yummy.

 

I am weighing or talllying up everything that we put up this year.  I've tried in the past and petered out but I am determined to get a grand total on everything that we put up this year.  Stay tuned for more exciting posts on vegetables . . .

 



Blueberry Pancakes

 

The couple from whom we bought the farm had planted some blueberry bushes but apparently didn't water them well, so about half or more of them died off over the course of the summer and through the winter.  A few survived and having fresh blueberries is quite a treat.  They are so much easier to care for than strawberries and easier to pick than the black raspberries.  So we'd like to plant more in the future.  The plants we have are very small so this may be the first year they've borne fruit.

 

I go out and pick the black raspberries and blueberries every couple of days.  I get just enough blueberries to use in muffins or pancakes or to eat over ice cream, but not enough to freeze.

 

My way of making blueberry pancakes is to simply make the usual recipe from the red & white checked cookbook, pour the batter on the griddle and sprinkle on a few blueberries before flipping the pancake. 

 

The stove we bought for this house has a large burner in the center, which is perfect for a griddle. 

 

The blueberries are sweet and make delicious pancakes.