my first summer squash

This is a great, early, and very and prolific yellow summer squash variety. Yellow Multipik. I harvested my first one today.

the first summer squash of the season

Two beautiful yellow crooknecks!

summer squash bread

I have a fridge full of summer squashes. Zucchini, yellow and a green patty pan this year. Our Friday night dessert is a warm out-of-the-oven summer squash bread.

To use extra squashes (tonight I added an extra cup of grated squash to the recipe), I added some spelt flour (whole wheat would be the same) to my favorite summer squash bread recipe. And a bit of molasses, too.

Serve with your local rum, ahh.

giant patty pan squash bread

After returning from vacation, I found this giant white patty pan squash growing in my garden. I should have weighed or measured it. I didn't, but it was pretty big. It made about 8 cups of grated squash. I made my old summer squash bread recipe. Its exceptionally good!

I also sauteed some grated squash for dinner. I added a bunch of chopped onion, fresh garlic and thyme, then lightly sauteed in olive oil. After it finished cooking, I grated on a bit of Robusto cheese. Delicious! I'd like to find a recipe for grated squash where it holds together like a potato pancake. The nice white squash looks very much like potato, but has delicious squashy sweetness.

These 2 recipes used up about 4 cups of grated white squash. Another 4 cups yet to go. And then there are the zucchinis and yellow squashes I found too....

what to do with zucchini (and other summer squashes)

My summer squash are coming in so fast I thought I'd get a list of ideas together of things to do with it.

- grilled, with olive oil and herbs
- grilled, chile-coated with honey lime dressing (Dan's post with photo)
- grilled with olive oil, salt and pepper (roasted or fried in sunflower oil works too), with a yogurt-garlic-dill sauce (a Bulgarian classic from Svetla)
- zucchini risotto (I'm going to try this tonight and I'll add the recipe!)
- fried zucchini (maybe Friday night...)
- squash carpacchio (raw zucchini with goat cheese)
- stuffed zucchini (a full meal)
- raw for snacks or grated in salad
- sliced in quiche
- casserole: layer blanched slices alternately with chopped onion and buttered bread crumbs, repeat 2-3 x and top with butter, cook at 350*F til hot and bubbly (ahhh! Saturday night)
- another casserole: new potato and summer squash casserole
- Squash bread (one of my favorite recipes, works well with grated frozen summer squash)
- dry them
- zucchini cake (sounds so yummy!)
- chocolate zucchini cake!
- appetizer: stuff blanched tiny baby patty pan or other squashes with buttered fresh bread crumbs sauteed with garlic and fresh herbs, heat through and serve
- add refried leftovers to omelet or frittata
- grate and freeze for winter recipes
- sneak it onto your neighbors porch at night (or, my mom's trick, into a car with an open window)
- and, last resort, "compost the buggers".

my favorite summer squash - sunburst patty pan

This is my favorite summer squash. Sunburst. A yellow patty pan. Its delicious. And this year is producing a very heavy harvest. I have two nice plants and am able to pick almost a squash a day. Like zucchini, I have to keep an eye on them or they'll turn into giants.

Someone asked me recently about the difference between male and female flowers and the lower photos show both pretty well. I bet anyone can figure out which is which. (Hint: females have a squash below the flower.) The photos don't have the best focus because the mosquitoes were so bad last night. I'm still itchy.

summer squash - big flowers on tiny plants

I've collected photos here of my squashes. From top: Zucchini Cashflow, Zephyr yellow squash, Anne Arrundale Muskmelon, Waltham Butternut, Crane Muskmelon, Sugar Baby Watermelon, Charentais Muskmelon, Jarrahdale Pumpkin. Not photo'd are Starship Pattypan, Sunburst Pattypan, Big Rock Pumpkin, and Baby Pam Pumpkin.

Some look good, some have seriously suffered from slug damage. I started with 4 or 5 plants of each. Probably most disappointing is the single pant of Charentais melon I have left. :(

Some years I have big leafy squash plants and few flowers - this year lots of big flowers on tiny little plants! I've been trying to figure this out.

One clue (I think) is that usually I have lots of zucchini already by now.

This year, its not that the flowers are early, but the leaves are late. I bet the flowers are triggered by daylight length (luckily the clouds aren't affecting this) and the leaf growth is very sensitive to temperature, which has been cool.

Skippy and the squash pile

Cucurbita pepo (squash)

new potato and summer squash casserole

This is a fantastic casserole that I have made a few times now. Its a recipe I made up myself to use the abundant items in my refrigerator. I could eat it every night!

Prepare:
Freshly dug potatoes, any variety, washed and sliced thin (about 1/8 inch)
Summer squash, I like to use mostly yellow varieties, sliced about 1/4-1/2 inch

Layer into a baking dish:
potato slices
squash slices
salt and pepper
butter slices
repeat layers until all vegetables are used (or dish is full...)

Top with:
Grated mild melting cheese about 1/2 cup (gouda, jack or mozzarella)
Fresh bread crumbs (a good thick layer)
Grated parmigiana cheese
Salt and pepper

Add:
Milk (I use skim). Pour this into the side of the casserole dish until it reaches half way up the side.

Bake:
At 375 until its done. About 30 minutes. You can microwave it a bit first to speed up the cooking.

squash bread

My evening activity is making zucchini/squash bread. (While watching the awesome Chinese Olympics opening!) I grated a pile of overgrown squash - the ones that I didn't find until too late. My mom said to look for a car with an open window and put them in. But no, I grated them all. I ended up with a pile of baggies full that I froze.

I have been reading through Marion Morash's Victory Garden Cookbook again (I read this every year I think). Lots of squash ideas. I will try using my frozen grated squash in soups, pasta sauce and squash breads and cakes later.

Kathy's Summer Squash Bread
(From The Victory Garden Cookbook, by Marion Morash, where its called Lynn's Spicy Zucchini Bread. This version has my changes.)

3 cups flour: 1 cup whole spelt flour and 2 cups all purpose white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
3 eggs
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups lightly packed grated summer squashes
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup nuts (I used sliced almonds)

Mix the dry ingredients together. Beat the eggs with the sugar, oil and vanilla. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients. Stir in squash, raisins and nuts. Divide between two 9x5-inch loaf pans generously greased with butter. Bake in preheated 350 degree F oven until done (50-70 minutes).

Cucurbita pepo (squash)
Skippy's vegetable recipes

harvest

This is what I brought home from the garden yesterday. Needless to say, we are eating a lot of squash these days....

Cucurbita pepo (squash)

overabundance

Overabundance, excess, surplus, flood, overload, surfeit, glut, oversupply, extra, excessive, too much .......

I was able to keep up with my spring lettuce this year even though there was a lot of it. And there has been a lot of broccoli, but not too much. But the favas and the summer squash are another story. They just won't stop.

Vicia faba
Cucurbita pepo (squash)

zucchini search

This is 39 second action thriller video where the gardener searches the dark and dangerous underworld of a squash bed in search of a lurking zucchini. I won't reveal the final ending, but its almost as exciting as the last few pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Well, to a fanatic gardener anyway...

At some point in the video, you can see the white cheesecloth I wrapped around one or two of the squash stems. This is a non-chemical experiment to protect from squash vine borers, which are always a problem for me. I only wrapped a couple just because I never got around to doing the rest. I'm curious to see if the wrapped ones do better.


Cucurbita pepo (squash)

summer squashes

This year I have planted several types of summer squash. In early May, I planted seeds for Casserta, Sunburst and zucchini. The Casserta never sprouted and neither did a second seeding in potting soil several weeks later. The zucchini (Cashflow) came up fast and the Sunburst (a green and yellow colored patty-pan shaped squash) was slow but eventually sprouted. I purchased some plants of Gold Bar, a cylindrical yellow squash, to fill in for the absent Casserta.

In all, I have three hills with about five plants each. I planted some pumpkins nearby and a mystery volunteer has sprouted (probably from my compost) in the middle of the summer squashes (probably a Halloween pumpkin). All of these squashes are just now starting to spread out and bud up. Soon the summer vegetables will be roasting on the grill.

Cucurbita pepo (summer squash)

planting squash seeds

Skippy and I planted squash seeds today. Its a really sunny warm day (80F) and I'm guessing the soil is above 60F now. I turned over the soil to mix in all the compost I added to the squash bed. Looks like great soil. I put the cucumber trellis at the back of the bed and made three hills for three different types of summer squash at the front of the bed. I planted seeds for two types of cucumbers (Diva and sriped Armenian) and three summer squashes (zucchini, caserta, and sunburst). I have forgotten what the last two look like and I am looking forward to being surprised by the fruits.

Cucurbita pepo (summer squash)

Multi squash

This is the overactive yellow squash plant I photographed 3 weeks ago http://carletongarden.blogspot.com/2006/09/squash-profusion.html. The center of it has rotted a bit, but many of the squashes (at least 10!) are growing fine. How big they get is just a question of when we get our first frost here. Or when we decide we'd like some grilled baby squash, which does sound good.

topic: yellow squash

Squash profusion

I'm not sure what's going on here. This is the growing tip of one of my yellow squash vines.
Looks like about 50 thousand little female squash buds all squished together. Kind of overboard it seems.

topic: yellow squash

Grilled summer squash

Finally a yellow summer squash!! Sunday evening I picked my first one. I sliced it in 3/4 inch slabs, brushed with herbs in olive oil(rosemary, parsley and garlic), let it sit awhile, then grilled and ate it.

topic: yellow squash
Cucurbita pepo (summer squash)

More yellow squashes

The squash flowers always look so bright and fresh. Since there seem to be fewer bees around now, I brought a Q-tip out and pollinated this female blossom myself. Just to make sure.

topic: yellow squash

Yellow crookneck squash flower

This is a big male flower that just glowed in the morning light.

topic: yellow squash