Between Asparagus and Tomatoes

                “What do you do with a drunken sailor?” As I looked out into my June garden, the melody of that old song kept running through my brain, but the lyrics had changed to “What do you do with a crooked necked squash?” In our garden, June is that culinary in-between month. The asparagus spears are gone to ferns, the spinach and lettuce salad greens have bolted, the radishes have become hot and pithy and we have grown tired of picking from exhausted strawberry plants. On the other hand, July sweet corn, tomatoes, cantaloupes, bell peppers, snap beans, and cabbage slaw are yet to come. True, there are some early new potatoes, Swiss chard for cooked greens, fried green tomatoes, but overall June is mostly summer squash and lots of it. Summer squash is the one plant you don’t want to overplant but you also don’t want to underplant it either. A few years ago, knowing that a couple plants each of zucchini and yellow summer squash would be plenty for our needs, that was all I planted that year, just four plants. Cut worms got every plant. Squash bugs and squash borers are not the only enemies of summer squash. So this year I planted about four plants of each and then thinned out a couple weaklings.

                The sustainability principle of eating what is in season was hitting home this June. It is very easy to pick ten pounds of summer squash per day in June and that much poundage goes a very long way toward feeding a retired couple but after eating just one pound of bland squash on just one day, you are ready to sacrifice the rest of the month’s crop to the garden gods on the compost altar. But as I said, in June, zucchini and yellow summer squash are pretty much all that are producing. This illustrates a second principle: the importance of the cook over the gardener because she can prepare that daily ten pounds of squash in ten different savory ways to make it delectable throughout the entire month. Going online on the internet to choose from the many squash recipes is a good part of her success. Since there are so many recipes on the internet, we will only include a couple favorites at the end of this blog.

                Zucchini was the easier of the two summer squash varieties for us to handle its bounty. For starters we washed and sliced some raw zucchini and used it as “chips” to dip in hummus “dip”. Quick, healthy, low calorie. Some zucchini we also fried in canola oil and served with ketchup, thus reducing our need for fried green tomatoes.  Let a few more tomatoes turn red. Mostly we grated and drained zucchini and then froze them for use this winter to bake everyone’s favorite, zucchini bread.  That bread makes a great (and cheap) winter gift. We baked a number of loaves in June too, but no need to overload the A/C too much. Baking zucchini bread with children and having them participate from garden picking to baking to eating the bread is a great project. So far we have baked around a dozen loaves and put 34 pint bags of shredded zucchini into the freezer.    Oh… where the recipes call for “sugar” use brown sugar instead for better flavor. Again, there are plenty of good recipes for zucchini breads on the internet so just grate, drain and freeze your surplus for later winter baking and you should keep up with garden production. If you let a zucchini grow a little too big and the center becomes seedy and pithy (honestly, they can go from hot dog size to the size of you lower leg overnight) just scoop out the center and use what’s left. DON’T let SOMEONE tell you it is no longer any good and has to go on the compost pile!

                Crooked neck yellow squash is another matter. It is moister and softer and probably doesn't freeze as well, so we felt compelled to eat it in the here and now. My wife made summer squash casserole with a corn meal topping from squash slices and cream of chicken soup. I liked it with hot sauce. She sauteed squash with onions and mixed it with marinara sauce to serve on spaghetti. She also sauteed it with onions and served it in chili; one of my favorites is as a taco filling with cheese, chili and salsa. I've not yet been able to eat just one of those tacos. Still, my most favorite recipe is for summer squash pancakes. We ate some squash pancakes with ketchup and some with syrup. So those are some of the ways we managed to handle our daily onslaught of summer squash in June. Still, I am glad to see July with its more varied garden produce and menu. I am now down to just a single summer squash plant and I will be pulling it shortly to allow melon vines to spread.  I fear another zucchini for the cook and I too might have ended up sacrificed to the garden gods on the compost altar!  A couple squash recipes follow:

Zucchini bread

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 ¼ cups sugar (can substitute brown sugar)

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional- you can leave out nuts or substitute pecans or raisins)

Directions:

1. Grease and flour two 8 by 4 inch loaf pans. (regular size loaf pans)

 (Optional*-After I grease and flour pans, I line bottoms of pans with wax paper.  The bread comes out of the pans easier.

 Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Stir together flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.

3. In another large bowl beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together.

4. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat well.  Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined.  (Dough will be stiff)

Pour batter into prepared pans.

5. Bake for 40-60 minutes (I usually bake it 60 minutes or until toothpick or butter knife inserted in bread comes out clean)

Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes.

Remove bread from pan and completely cool loaves before wrapping.

Squash Pancakes

 2 cups grated summer squash or zucchini

2 eggs, slightly beaten

2 T chopped green onion

½ cup flour

¼ c grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup vegetable or canola oil, or as needed

1. Drain grated squash and press out excess liquid.

2. Stir squash, eggs, and onion in a large bowl.

3. Mix flour, Parmesan cheese, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl; stir mixture into squash mixture until batter is moistened.

4. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Drop  by rounded tablespoonfuls of batter in hot oil; fry until golden ( about 2-3 minutes each side).

5. Drain pancakes on paper towel-lined plate.