goodbye zucchini plants, we hardly knew ye

My zucchini plants all died. :(

I think it was a two-part problem. One, the hellish, unrelenting heat of the Phoenix desert. Once the temps started hitting the 100s every day and not cooling off below the 80s at night, the plant leaves started looking drier, browner, and wiltier. I watered as much as I was able, but my research showed me that most people who get their plants to survive the summer around here have a combined approach of constant watering misters and shade cloths, all stuff I'm too much of a cheapskate to shell out for.

Secondly, in the last couple weeks of their lives, the zucchini plants had a growing squash bug problem. I killed them when I saw them, but I'm sure plenty hid from me, and I saw they were laying eggs everywhere. And, apparently, no poison can kill them? The zucchini had stopped producing fruit at this time so I decided the best thing to do was just rip them all up and try again in the fall, once it's cooler. And I'll try to see if there are any squash bug preventative measures I can take.

Also, here's a fun fact about growing your own zucchini that nobody ever tells you: the fruit contain a substance that secretes when it is cut, and this substance, if it gets on your skin, dries it out and makes it tight-feeling, and eventually it peels. Almost as if your fingers are coated in dried glue, but it's just your skin. I haven't been able to find much info about this reaction from the zucchini, because a lot of my googling led to crazy talk about how it's the pesticides that cover the zucchini or it's a result of GMO or whatever. Considering I grew this myself and put no pesticides on it whatsoever, I know that's a falsehood. I saw a lot of people think it is a allergic reaction/contact dermatitis, but I've been eating zucchini bough at the store for a long time and that never happened to me before. It was only with my own zucchini. I managed to find a few sane people who put some thought into it, and their conclusion is that it is some sort of defense mechanism from the fruit. It turns out the fresher the harvest, the more likely the fruit is to have this reaction. So eventually I learned to keep my zucchini in the fridge for a week or two before cutting into it. (And that explains why store-bought zucchini never does this, since store-bought probably sat in a crate for three weeks before hitting the shelf!)

My zucchini and I had some educational and delicious moments. Here is a small photospam of the good times we had together, in memoriam:

a typical harvest off my plants. so pretty!

the first meal made with the first harvest. a chicken leg and herb-roasted zucchini

made "zucchini boats" with tomato sauce, sausage, and cheese

unbelievably delicious. and also, super filling. i could barely finish this.

me with the first harvest. RIP zucchini

zucchini overload

We're definitely starting to approach critical mass on the zucchini front - and it's glorious.

I harvested three more from the garden today, and there were five already in the fridge. There's a bunch more small ones on the plants, some of which should be ready to harvest within the week. Pretty soon I'm going to have to make a big batch of zucchini chips!

Since I don't eat grains, coming up with delicious and interesting ways to use up zucchinis is slightly more challenging. (No zucchini bread for me, I am afraid. Or cake, for that matter. Or cookies, or brownies. Etc.) Today for lunch I decided to make spaghetti. And since I would be using spaghetti squash to stand in for spaghetti, then why not zucchini as a stand-in for meatballs? I find zucchini is a very meaty type of vegetable so it serves this purpose pretty well.

I didn't follow a recipe, because if I follow a recipe and mess it up then I become sad, cause what kind of doofus can't follow a recipe? (Hint: this kind.) But if I just make it up and it turns out less than ideal, well hey, at least I tried! So I just started randomly grabbing things from the fridge.

I diced up and cooked some bacon for its grease, then slapped in a pat of butter, and sauteed two diced garlic cloves. Then I diced and cooked the zucchini in the buttery garlic bacon grease. (I'm getting hungry again describing this. It was delicious, man. You really can't go wrong with butter and garlic.)

[MOUTH WATERING INTENSIFIES]

Then I nuked a small spaghetti squash, threw that in with the zucchini, and served it up.

notbad.jpg

I topped it with some shakes of parmesan and the cooked bacon. It needed more salt (squash needs a lot of salt, I find) and some of the garlic bits were a bit burnt, but it wasn't bad! Which is about all I can ask for.

Now to think up something zucchini related for dinner..