Zucchini and Acorn Squash recipes

So with my 14" zucchini, I had to use it in a couple of recipes.  The first one was in zucchini, carrot, and onion fritters.  Just grate all the ingredients, add an egg and some garlic, drop a spoonful in a pan with some hot oil and that's it.  Serve it up with some sour cream and/or applesauce.  Delicious.



While I was cooking the fritters, I had used the rest of the zucchini to make some zucchini bread.  Instead of two loaf pans, I just used one bundt cake pan.  It came out a little on the dry side but still pretty tasty with some butter on it.



For some reason, I was really in the cooking mood that night so I also took 3 small acorn squash that grew in my garden and wanted to cook them up some way.  I found online a recipe for squash rings.  Simply cut them cross ways in rings, remove the seeds and center of each ring, baste with some melted butter, season with salt, pepper, and brown sugar.  Bake in oven at 350 for about 25 minutes flipping them over half way through.  Turned out good.  I skin was a little tough so we just ate it off like you would a watermelon.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Finally the Fruits of my Labor are beginning to appear

Just when I was about to give up on the garden... after the week of rain and then a vacation to Branson, MO, and getting the water bill for July, I decided to not waste any more water on the garden.  Then the other night I went outside to talk to my neighbor and I looked down and saw this beautiful baby.

A zucchini squash measuring an impressive 14" long.   Now I just have to think of a recipe to use it in.   I noticed a few other small ones beginning to grow as well so hopefully I will be seeing more in a week or two.  The funny thing is though, the squash bed is the only bed that the soaker hose isn't in.  These babies just grew from the little rain we have had in July.

My cucumber vines have all shriveled and dried up, about half the tomato plants are getting sparse with foliage, most of the salad greens have gone to seed (which I will be harvesting and using next year).

I harvested most of the swiss chard last night and sauteed for dinner with some chicken sausage, garlic, spinach, and a little red onion.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

By now its all about experimenting...

We have already hit the 2nd week of July and still pretty much nothing from the garden.  Last night I went to pick some basil for our dinner and was able to collect a handful of grape tomatoes.  My bell peppers are starting to produce so hopefully there will be some in the near future to eat.  My zucchini squash plants are big but still no fruit.  As for the rest of my plants... I must have got a bad bunch this year.  

I decided to construct a greenhouse structure over the beds to help conserve water and to speed up the growing process.  I also created a shade structure with a tarp for the bucket garden since it gets way more than 6 hours of sun a day.

all the cords are also being used to dry our laundry

I would feel like a total failure if my neighbor weren't having the same problem.   He has gotten a few big boy tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes.  A few jalapenos and a couple of eggplants.

Its been a few weeks now since we had any useful rain.   That would be the case that as soon as a make a rain barrel it doesn't rain.  Maybe I should also get some gutters installed too. hehehe.

The one positive thing going for me now is my compost..  its definitely getting the heat additive.  Last night I went out to dump our kitchen scraps and nearly jumped out of my shoes when something jumped out toward my feet.   At first I thought it was a rat, but then noticed that it was my little frog friend (I think) from a few weeks ago.  I guess he decided to hang out in the damp compost since there isn't much room in the gutters now.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Not Looking so good this year

So for some reason, the garden is not doing so well this year.  I am not sure what the problem is.   The only factors that have changed since last year are that I planted everything about 2 weeks later than normal and I decided to mulch around the plants to retain moisture and cool down the dirt underneath. 



Today I was able to harvest one measly little corn cob from the small batch I had.  From the evidence on the ground, it looks like the squirrels at least enjoyed my corn.  I lit up the grill and threw it on for a few minutes, buttered it up, and added some Tony's seasoning.  It wasn't that bad.  With corn being 6 ears for $1 at HEB, its not even worth trying to grow in the backyard.








The only reason I had it was that I planted it up at the school I work at for the students' garden
and transplanted it after school was out because first, I wanted to see if it would transplant, and second, I didn't want to just waste it.  It actually transplanted better than the other plants I brought home.  The problem was that the batteries in my water timer went out and a few days went by without my plants getting any water.




Mechanics of Gardening:

I finally finished the rain barrel, but Austin still hasn't had much rain this spring and summer.  However, I will be ready for when it does.   Austin will be going to a Stage 2 water restriction this Monday due to the ongoing drought.   So to help out, I have my timer and soaker hoses going off at 4am for only 20 minutes.  After some Internet research, I think I am not watering long enough.  I am going to change my watering routine and see if there will be any improvement.

 

To assist in water conservation and with the mosquito problem, I added some river rock in the gutters.  This will displace the amount of water needed in the gutters but still be able to raise the level of water to reach the baskets in the bottom of the 5 gallon buckets.  The day I filled the gutters with rocks and refilled with water, my little frog friend popped out.  Not sure if he is still around anymore since there is less room for him to lounge around in the gutters.  

It's been about a month since I started the garden with small transplants and seeds and as of today, I have only harvested a handful of grape tomatoes, a few basil leaves, 1 ear of corn, a lot of lettuce, and 2 small acorn squash. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

A little friend and foe

So things are slowing beginning to produce in the garden.   So far a few little grape tomatoes have been ripe enough to pick and a couple of the Early Girls as well.  Looks like I have a three cabbage shoots sprouting up to in one of the raised beds.  Everything seems to be going well with the old beds.  I laid out a soaker hose and covered it with some mulch this year to see if it helps with the watering.   I am still using the timer on the hose and have only been letting it water for 15 minutes.  I recently decided to increase the time to 20 minutes to see if there will be any change.

I spent most of my weekend working on the rain barrel for the self-watering gutter grow system.  I finally have it finished and still need to install it.  So far I have just been dumping collected rain water from five gallon buckets into the gutters to feed the plants.  One day as I was moving the buckets over, I found a little friend sitting in the water just soaking up the coolness of the water.

To help with the mosquito problem, I went to a local pet store and purchased some 10 cent fish to eat the larvae.   Not sure if its working or not.  Only bought 4 fish, so either I didn't buy enough or there are just to many larvae.   I ended up doing some research and found that I could use the mosquito dunks in the gutters and that it would not be harmful to my vegetables.

This past week I spent all day Monday trying to fix my fence (it was leaning in my neighbors yard at about a 45 degree angle. So I straightened up the post and decided to cut the pickets in half and make a 3ft fence.  This will allow my neighbor and I to talk with each other, keep Cassie in my yard, his kids in his yard, and the sun to hit both of our gardens.

The squirrels are back!  I found this guy just lounging around, probably because he was full of eating my vegetables.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!