Cucurbit Domination

When A. told me that the house we're renting had a vegetable garden, I was all excited. Then the landlady told me we were welcome to whatever was in the garden, and I was overjoyed.

But when I got here and inspected the garden, I realized that although there are a few tomato plants, a couple of underwhelming pepper plants, some beets, and about half a dozen snap bean plants, the vast, VAST majority of the small garden is completely filled with cucurbits.

There are a few winter squash plants--mostly some variety of butternut squash--that I was pleased to see, and I can sort of deal with cucumbers because we like eating sliced fresh cucumbers with vinegar and salt in the summer and pickles all the time, but zucchini? I am mostly ambivalent about zucchini. And those yellow summer squash? Nope. What's the point? They have no taste that I can discern.

And yet, of course, cucurbits are the most prolific of plants. We have been absolutely overrun with summer squash and zucchini. The brushy area next to the garden is littered with cast-off summer squash, because I gave the kids permission to pick any they see and have contests to see who can fling them the farthest.

I've made some half-hearted attempts to cook the zucchini, but only A. and I will eat it, and we're not really that enthused about it. Which pretty much leaves me with zucchini bread. The children will eat that form of zucchini. Of course they will, because it's just a kind of cake with token shreds of zucchini. This means that I use about one zucchini a week by mixing it with large quantities of flour and sugar. That leaves me with, oh, about a dozen zucchinis in a week that I'm not using.

I might freeze some for stealth chili additions in the winter. Or I might just let the kids use them for bow and arrow target practice. Probably that.