*laugh* That brings to mind the old joke from when I was growing up in the South.
Why do people always lock their cars in the summer?
Because if they don't, the back seat will be full of zuchinis when they come back!
Zuchini is one of those vegetables that is only good if you pick them while they are very small and tender, about 6 inches tops. But most people let them go until they are nearly 12 inches long and a good 4 inches diameter. You don't want to eat much of that quality zuchini, and the plants also tend to be far more prolific in producing them than people think they will be. One family of 4 to 6 people cannot eat the produce of one garden row of zuchini. Unfortunately, almost everyone has a garden and grows zuchini, so it's impossible to trade or give away! We all have way too much! People really would sneak big bags of it into friends' cars so they didn't have a chance to say no!
My hometown, Burlington Vermont, held (and may still hold) an end-of-summer Zucchini Festival in City Hall Park. When you live in a forest, you celebrate any vegetable which deigns to grow.
Ben & Jerry's (also from my hometown) made a zucchini ice cream for the occasion. Some of the local hippies produced a gorgeous painting (on plywood) of an earth-mother fertility goddess whose arms were overflowing with zucchini. Somebody made a football-mascot Zucchini costume. There were folding tables after folding tables of zucchini bread (and give-away cards with the recipe), zucchini stir-fry (pick 'em small!), zucchini pickles, zucchini-blossom salad, etc.
People tended to only sample what was offered (declining to actually buy any), but latch onto the recipe cards. After all, everyone already had plenty of zucchini at home; they only needed to know what to do with it.
I grew up thinking zucchini dill pickles were the normal ones, not cucumber. And my mom had a killer recipe for pickled zucchini and green tomato relish. I didn't like store-bought relish until I was an adult, and mainly got used to it because I didn't have Mom's anymore.
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tamidon
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Date: 2005-08-25 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-25 01:31 pm (UTC)That brings to mind the old joke from when I was growing up in the South.
Why do people always lock their cars in the summer?
Because if they don't, the back seat will be full of zuchinis when they come back!
Zuchini is one of those vegetables that is only good if you pick them while they are very small and tender, about 6 inches tops. But most people let them go until they are nearly 12 inches long and a good 4 inches diameter. You don't want to eat much of that quality zuchini, and the plants also tend to be far more prolific in producing them than people think they will be. One family of 4 to 6 people cannot eat the produce of one garden row of zuchini. Unfortunately, almost everyone has a garden and grows zuchini, so it's impossible to trade or give away! We all have way too much! People really would sneak big bags of it into friends' cars so they didn't have a chance to say no!
no subject
Date: 2005-08-25 02:01 pm (UTC)Ben & Jerry's (also from my hometown) made a zucchini ice cream for the occasion. Some of the local hippies produced a gorgeous painting (on plywood) of an earth-mother fertility goddess whose arms were overflowing with zucchini. Somebody made a football-mascot Zucchini costume. There were folding tables after folding tables of zucchini bread (and give-away cards with the recipe), zucchini stir-fry (pick 'em small!), zucchini pickles, zucchini-blossom salad, etc.
People tended to only sample what was offered (declining to actually buy any), but latch onto the recipe cards. After all, everyone already had plenty of zucchini at home; they only needed to know what to do with it.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-25 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-25 02:32 pm (UTC)