Ahh zucchini, one of the easiest, no fuss plants in the vegetable garden. Just plant it, water it and harvest its bounty. It doesn't get any easier than this.
Zucchini is a small summer squash. It can be yellow, green or light green, and generally has a similar shape to a ridged cucumber, though a few cultivars are available that produce round or bottle-shaped fruit. Mature zucchini can grow to be 3-ft. in length, but are often fibrous and not appetizing to eat. So it's best to pick the zucchini before it reaches 12 inches and the seeds are soft and immature. Zucchini with the flowers attached are a sign of a truly fresh and immature fruit, and are especially sought by many people.
Unlike cucumber, zucchini are usually served cooked. It can be prepared using a variety of cooking techniques, including steamed, boiled, grilled, stuffed and baked, barbecued, fried, or incorporated in other recipes such as souffles. It's most popular incarnation is in zucchini bread.
Our zucchini plants are doing gangbusters this year, with each producing at least a dozen so far. Making zucchini bread has become a ritual of summer in our household. I even have a recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread that was sent in to The Mercury for an EATS contest many, many years ago, and it still brings compliments every time I share it. Of course, there's really only so many you can make, freeze and share with friends and neighbors.
So here's a couple of zucchini recipes that you might want to try for something different. I don't remember where I got them, so if you recognize either one, remember, the best compliment your recipe can get is to be passed on to others!

ZUCCHINI SOUP
4 cups thinly sliced zucchini
2 cups chicken broth
8 ozs. cream cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. garlic salt
Combine zucchini and broth in a saucepan. Cook until zucchini is tender. Combine zucchini, cooking liquid, cream cheese, salt, black pepper and garlic salt in blender container.Blend until smooth. Serve hot or cold.Yields 4 servings.Can be doubled, but this is a very rich soup, so you really don't need more than one serving per person.

ZUCCHINI "CRAB" CAKES (sometimes called Faux Crab Cakes)
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsps. butter, melted
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup mincedonion
1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup vegeatble oil for frying
In a large bowl, combine zucchini, egg and butter or margarine. Stir in seasoned crumbs, minced onion and seasoning. Mix well. Shape mixture into patties. Dredge in flour. In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium high heat until hot. Fry patties in oil until golden brown on both sides. Enjoy!

Up next: Why I Love/Hate Petunias!

In between storms this weekend, I did manage to spend some time gardening. And I'm pleased to say -- AGAIN -- that my Planting Season 2008 is finally over. Yes, I know I've said it before, but this time... I MEAN IT!

After a particularly big blow-out of weather yesterday afternoon, I got out there, moved a couple of hostas and planted the rest of the "clearance" items I bought at Lowe's last week. It's done. It's over. I feel a little like Frodo after he threw the ring into the fires of Mount Doom ...

Now, on to more pressing matters ... the vegetable garden. So far, this season is holding a lot of promise, but that's about it. I mean, I have lots and lots of green tomatoes on the vine, but I've only harvested 3 red ones. My cherry tomatoes are finally turning and I'm up to about a dozen picked so far.

You might remember back in June (June 4, to be exact) I planted two tomato and four pepper plants in Earthboxes, shown here.

According to www.earthbox.com: "The patented EarthBox was developed by commercial farmers and proven in the lab and on the farm. Our maintenance-free, award-winning, high-tech growing system controls soil conditions, eliminates guesswork and more than doubles the yield of a conventional garden-with less fertilizer, less water and virtually no effort."
The EarthBox is a resin planter box. Inside is a plastic screen and a small bag of accessories. Remove the fill tube from the accessory bag and press it thru the support. After packing the two rear corner cutouts in the screen with moist potting mix, you must pour water thru the fill tube until it runs out the overflow hole. This is the way you'll water your plants after planting.

The EarthBox promises that if you follow their instructions, you'll have the best yield ever! Well, here's how my plants look now.

They certainly are growing, but so far, the yield hasn't been the best ever. But like I said above, both tomato plants are bursting with green veggies. I'm sure that they'll all turn red at the same time -- like they seem to do every year. If you grow tomatoes at home, you know what I mean. It's like we wait and wait and wait for those fresh tomatoes, only to be overcome with them all at once!

Yes, despite my best efforts, I still end up throwing away spoiled tomatoes. And don't even get me started on the cherry tomatoes. I know one year we stopped counting at 200 because it was getting ridiculous!

Anyway, soon we'll be making fresh bruschetta, and nothing beats a fresh Lebanon, tomato and mayo sandwich on sourdough toast. In the meantime, we can take solace in the abundance of cucumbers! We did so well with this vegetable last year that we planted six vines this year.

I chose a new spot for the cucumber vines -- the new "cutting" garden that I constructed this past spring. I thought the vines would look nice creeping up the side of the shed behind the various wildflowers and "cutting" flowers that I was hoping would come up from the seeds I scattered. Anyway, check it out -- before and after -- not too shabby, huh? More on the cutting garden on another day ...

Back to the veggies -- anyone having any luck with green peppers yet? Here's our peppers when they were planted in the EarthBox on June 4. A nice neat little row of green seedlings.

They sure have grown well (the peppers are the box on the right in the above photo with the tomato plants), but, like the tomatoes, while they have a lot of little peppers on them (one plant has a dozen), nothing is getting real big. I took one off over the weekend just to see if it was ready, and it was OK, but I would like to see them get bigger. Especially the orange-gold ones that I haven't tried before.

So, the jury's still out on the effectiveness of the EarthBoxes. The plants are doing very well, but I'm still waiting for the "best yield ever!"

Coming up tomorrow, the wonderful zucchini. We're having a great season with these. But what happens when you're sick of making bread -- I'll share some recipes that my family's enjoying this year.