There are two zucchini on the counter as I write this, a third on the windowsill, and Greg just came in from the backyard holding a fourth like a baseball bat. "This one hid under the leaves," he said. It is 15 inches long.
When I shrank the garden in June to two raised beds, I thought I was being sensible. Fewer plants, less weeding, less food going to waste. Then I put two zucchini plants in one of those beds, because one seemed too few. That was my mistake. One zucchini plant is plenty for two people. Two is a part-time job.
I've been weighing what we pick on the bathroom scale, which is not scientific but it's what I have. Since the first one on July 3, the two plants have given us about 41 pounds. Greg and I have eaten maybe 12 pounds of that, sautéed, grilled, in spaghetti sauce and in one zucchini lasagna that was not my best work.
Freezing it the right way
Most of the rest has gone into the freezer, and I had to look up how to do it properly, because the first batch I froze raw three years ago turned into mush.
For baking, I grate it, then steam-blanch it in small batches for one to two minutes until it looks a little translucent. Then I cool it and pack it in measured two-cup portions in freezer bags with a half inch of headspace, flattened so they stack. Two cups is what my bread recipe takes, so each bag is one batch. When I thaw it later, I'll pour off the liquid before using it.
For slices to cook as a vegetable later, I blanch them in boiling water for about three minutes, plunge them into ice water, drain and dry them, and freeze them flat on a sheet pan before bagging. They'll never be crisp again, but they're fine in soup, chili or a casserole in January.
So far I have 11 bags of grated and six of sliced. That's about all the freezer room I'm willing to give one vegetable.
Sharing with the street
Patti Henderson next door took six zucchini in July and then started not answering the door when she saw me coming with a bag. That's fair. So I changed my approach and started giving away things made from zucchini instead.
My zucchini bread recipe makes two loaves. I've made it four times now, so eight loaves, and they've gone to the Hendersons, the young couple across the street with the new baby, the retired gentleman on the corner who waves at Greg every morning at 3:40 when the truck pulls out, and two of my old coworkers from the school office. Everyone takes bread. Nobody turns down bread.
I priced out one batch from my receipts. Three cups of flour, a cup and a half of sugar, three eggs, a cup of oil, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and two cups of the zucchini itself. At what I paid at Aldi in June and July, it comes to about $4.20 a batch, or $2.10 a loaf. The eggs are the priciest part. The zucchini is free, if you don't count my time and patience.
What we're eating ourselves
We're not tired of it yet, mostly. The things that have worked for two people:
- Sliced thin and tossed into scrambled eggs with a little cheese
- Halved lengthwise and put on the grill next to whatever Greg is grilling, with oil and salt
- Grated into meatloaf or burgers, where nobody notices it
- Chopped into jarred spaghetti sauce to stretch one jar into two dinners
Things that have not worked: zucchini "noodles." Greg ate them politely and then asked if we had any of the real kind.
The quiet house makes this odd. In a normal August, Josh would be home for a few more weeks and would eat two zucchini muffins standing at the counter without noticing what was in them. He's moving into his last college apartment next weekend, and I'll send him off with a loaf.
Next year, one zucchini plant. I'm writing that in the notebook now so I don't forget it in May, when the seedlings look small and lonely at the garden center and I start thinking one is too few.
