Identifying Vines in the Garden and Using Zucchini

Cucumber

My grandfather taught me to plant straight rows of seeds and mark the end of each row with a stick. Tacked to that stick should be the seed envelope for identifying the row.

Twenty years later, I'm still not planting straight rows and it is a bit of a surprise what each vine will produce. You see, I save all my seeds from this year's produce to grow next years produce.

I wish I could say that I label the dried seeds in an organized fashion, but I do not. I jumble my dried seeds together.

Pumpkin

While I do plant the seeds in rows, they rarely stay confined. Vines like pumpkins, cucumbers, and zucchini sprawl all over the garden bed. This year I took photos of the leaves of each vine. Learning to identify the leaves, certainly cuts down on the mystery! 

Here are some pumpkin leaves above and on the right. They've just started to bloom at the beginning of July, so I hope they will have some pumpkins ready for me in October.

zucchini

Zucchini is my favorite type of squash. It is hearty and thrives when my other vines have taken all the summer heat they can handle. It grows taller than a cucumber and doesn't sprawl around the garden quite so much. On the left are the zucchini leaves as it grows. They are bigger and greener than cucumber leaves.

Friends often ask what I do with zucchini. My favorite way to eat it is fried with potatoes. Below is a photo of last nights dinner. I fry it in real butter (never margarine). I also add other vegetables such as corn, onions and tomatoes.  Here is the full recipe I typed out for a friend:

Fried Zucchini (and other vegetables)

• Melt 1/2 a stick of real butter in the bottom of a pan. 
• Take it off the heat while I slice the vegetables. (I use a food processor to do the slicing.) 
• Slice 4 medium pototoes, 2 medium zucchini and half an onion. 
• Cover it and let it cook on medium low heat until the potatoes are tender. 
• Uncover and add the quartered tomatoes. 
• Cook it another 5 minutes uncovered. (If you add the tomatoes to soon they cook down into nothing.) 
• I also throw in seasoning at this point. Dried sage, sea salt and garlic powder are 3 of my favorites.

 

frozen zucchini slices

I can easily save enough zucchini each summer to have fried zucchini and potatoes all year long. I just slice it in the food processor and put it in the bags. That's it! You do not have to add anything and it doesn't turn brown. It is slightly soggier than fresh zucchini after being thawed, but I am frying it, so I simply leave the lid off the frying pan a little longer to cook the sogginess out of the zucchini.

You can also shred zucchini before freezing it. This comes in quite handy for making zucchini bread.
 

I also use zucchini to can sweet pickle relish. I use the relish all year long in tuna, pasta, potato and bean salad. I never have to buy sweet relish. The relish I make from zucchini tastes just like cucumber relish. Delicious!

Here is the recipe for Canning Zucchini Relish. It uses organic bell pepper, organic zucchini, apple cider vinegar, and brown sugar. No high-fructose corn syrup. (Gross!)

A friend also shared a tasty recipe for:
Zucchini Milano
2 T. Oleo
1/4 c. green pepper
4 c. Zucchini (1/4 slices)
1 c. Shredded cheddar
1/4 C. chopped onion
1/2 tsp. oregano
8 oz. tomato sauce
Salt, pepper & a little sugar to taste

• Saute onion & pepper in butter until tender
• Add squash, cover & cook about 15 minutes on low
• Add tomato sauce and spices
• Fold in cheese
• Stir

gourd

But, enough about zucchini. I have one more vine that I haven't shown you from this year's garden. It's on the right and it is a gourd vine. The leaves have milky white veins running through them.  

I believe I bought these seeds this year in order to make things (bird's nests, canteens, etc) from the dried gourds. 

Have you ever made anything from a gourd?

Pears, pumpkin and tomatoes

This week I have been canning a lot of pear sauce. I make it exactly as I do applesauce, only I do it with pears from mom and dad's pear tree. Here is the recipe that I use: How to Can Applesauce I experimented with using different amounts of cinnamon this year. I also canned pear halves instead of the traditional pear sauce. This is the first year that I've done pear halves and I was amazed at how beautiful they turned out. Definitely a canned product I would give as gifts. Here is a picture of the canned pear halves.

Some of the canned pears I will later dry during the winter months. I love dried pears and to get the the sweet, candy-like flavor similar to those found in stores, you have to can them and let them soak up the canning syrup for a few months before drying them.

In the past I have also done Pear Butter, which is basically a very cooked down version of pear sauce. Similarly, you can make apple butter by cooking down applesauce.

The weather has been unbelievably hot and dry, but despite the heat and lack of rain, the tomato plants are producing wonderfully. My favorite way to use tomatoes is to simply wash, half and seed them. I then place them in freezer containers and freeze them. The skins just peel off after freezing and I can use them however I wish throughout the year.

I had a pumpkin vine pop up out of the compost bin this year, so I just let it grow. It bore a pumpkin before the heat killed it. Tonight we used the pumpkin. We baked it in the oven, then pureed it in the blender. We used the pumpkin puree to bake a pie. The smell of cinnamon and pumpkin has me looking forward to fall already. Off to enjoy pumpkin pie in August!