If there is one thing you can never have too much of its zucchini. Wait, actually, let me rephrase that: if there is one thing you can never have too much of its zucchini recipes. Now would be a good time to find your stash.
Let’s start with a few announcements then a transcript of an interview with two of our more fabulous warm season veggies: the voluptuous Summer Squash and equally handsome Zucchini.
This week is a FruitShare week. We have a boxes of cherries! Delicious!
This is also a CheeseShare and EggShare week.
FlowerShare is ongoing. The bouquets will get taller and larger as the season progresses.
No MeatShare, IceCreamShare, SeafoodShare or SalmonShare.
This week we have zucchini, summer squash, broccoli, snap peas, snow peas, green onions, garlic scapes, Swiss chard, kale, kohlrabi, fennel, beets and lettuce.
Q&A with Zucchini and Summer Squash.
Farmer Chris: First of all, thank you very much for coming today to talk about your lives. We appreciate your taking time out of your busy day to inform our members about what it is like to be a zucchini or summer squash.
Zucchini: Our pleasure
Summer Squash: Thanks for having us. We feel we are frequently misunderstood so I welcome the opportunity to educate your members.
FC: That is a good place to start. Our members are confused. What exactly is the difference between you two?
Z: Well, I think it is obvious. I am far more attractive!
SS: Wait a minute. You’re saying members don’t find my womanly figure attractive?
Z: To each his own I guess.
FC: Ok, let’s play nicely here. What about taste?
Z: Do we really need to make Summer feel so low. She has no taste at all.
SS: As if you have better taste. I feel our tastes are fairly similar and only the most discerning palette can tell the difference.
Z: Don’t get me wrong. You have a fine taste, I just feel my texture is a bit more, how do you say, firm?
SS: You are being immature now.
Z: Me immature? We are both immature.
FC: Can you elaborate on that a bit?
Z: Certainly. Both summer squash and I, zucchini, are immature squash. We belong to the same class as our winter brothers acorn and delicata. Hubbard and butternut are cousins of ours. These other squash are so much more mature than us. But if we weren’t so immature people wouldn’t like us much.
FC: So what you are saying is that you are just like winter squash but picked earlier at a more immature stage.
SS: Yes, that’s one way to put it.
FC: Are there advantages to being immature?
Z: Sure. Our seeds are soft and edible so no need to remove them before cooking.
SS: Plus since we are picked early and often we create a lot of fruit!
Z: And we taste nothing like our more mature relatives. We are more subdued.
FC: Let’s change gears a bit here. How is life as a zucchini or summer squash difficult?
SS: Well, don’t get me started on pests.
Z: Yes, pests are a big challenge for us.
FC: What kinds of pests?
Z: Well, the two biggest pests are squash bugs and cucumber beetles.
SS: Don’t forget squash vine borers!
Z: Ouch. Yes, those darn squash vine borers. My vine hurts just thinking about them.
FC: Tell me a little more about these pests and what you do to control them.
Z: The cucumber beetles are these little bugs that congregate all over us, especially when we are small and most fragile. They eat our leaves, flowers and fruits. They also sometimes spread a bacteria that causes us to die. These are nasty, nasty creatures.
FC: What do you do to protect yourself?
SS: I hang around my cousins the Hubbards. They seem to attract them and leave me alone.
FC: Interesting. Is that what is meant by a “trap crop”?
SS: Yes, the cucumber beetles gravitate to the hubbards and leave us delicate summer squash alone. The hubbards eventually perish from their onslaught but at least we survive. Better you than me I always tell hubbard.
Z: Sometimes a little PyGanic cologne helps, too, usually when we are small and weak. Once we’ve grown sufficiently to withstand the pests we pretty much fend for ourselves.
FC: How about the squash bugs?
SS: These are even more nasty. Always, how do you say, having sex all over us.
Z: Ew, too much information!
SS: Well that’s what they do! That and eat our leaves and fruits.
FC: Do you have any solutions for squash bugs?
Z: There are no organic pesticides that work as far as we can tell. So we resort to picking them off and…
SS: Don’t tell anyone this next part.
Z: burning them with a propane torch in the early fall and again after the fruits are harvested from our cousins the winter squash.
FC: Doesn’t that hurt?
Z: Not us since by then we have long since perished. But for our winter squash brethren, yes, they lose a few leaves but it isn’t as bad as being eaten to death.
SS: Plus if we can control them enough in the fall there isn’t as many to overwinter and attack us the next season.
FC: I see. Since squash bugs overwinter it is a good idea to kill as many as possible in the fall and by torching them after the winter squash is harvested you reduce the number that can overwinter. Clever.
SS: Yes I suppose that is pretty clever. Seeing them heat up and explode is certainly cathartic.
FC: And what about vine borers?
Z: We don’t have too many problems with them. Adult vine borers lay an egg in the ground near our stems. When the egg hatches the baby vine borer…
SS: BABY! You make it sound so cute! Vine borers aren’t cute!
Z: Sorry, the vine borer nymph bores into our vines and starts eating us from the inside out. Not very pleasant.
FC: Anything you can do about it?
Z: We try to keep our stems buried deeply so we can reroot if we are attacked.
FC: Sounds like a good plan. We need to take a break. Can you two stick with us?
Both: Certainly.
FC: Great. After the break more on the lives of Summer Squash and Zucchini.
Z: ha…ha..ha….ha.ha he just said moron.
SS: You are so immature!