This season is miserable for my warm weather veggies. The only plants that are giving me anything to harvest right now are my cucumbers and my zucchini, and, boy, is my zucchini producing! My first was normal, and tasty. When I picked my second, a couple of weeks later, I found one more HUGE one. It was 4 lbs.! Yesterday, I found another the same size along with another regular sized one. I don't know why that one plant is doing so well and my others are pathetic, but I won't complain about it. I also picked 4 more purple beans off of my one little plant and 4 cucumbers yesterday. I have a box of my uncle's pickling spices. I am not sure how old it is. How long do those spices keep? I'd like to give it a try if the spices will still be good. My uncle made the best pickles. I also picked my one ripe cherry tomato and shared it with my better half. It was the first of the season to ripen. Yum. I also took a very wise bit of advice I received and put it into action, picking off the rest of the blossoms from the tomato plants so the plants can focus their energy on ripening the ones that are already there. I have so many little green tomatoes. I am only realizing now that I am being a very neglectful stewbie. I'm sorry for not taking pictures. I really should do that to share my achievements, no matter how little. I will try to be better at getting pictures to share.
Beeker, considering the difficult weather you've had, and the fact that you are in the North, your garden sounds fine to me! Watch out for those cucumbers--they do zucchini's trick of hiding under a leaf and getting huge. I'd get new pickling spices. Most spices lose their potency after about six months. There should be a date somewhere on the box of your uncle's spices, but I'm betting they are over a year old.
Congrats on the good crop even in lousy weather conditions. I got maybe a dozen tomatoes, everything else just gave up. If you like sweet pickles try this recipe Three Day Sweet Pickles it's super easy for a beginner and they taste really, really good.
Shucks,, I had zuchinni larger than that. Like MG said,, cucumbers and zuchinni will hide from you. Those larger zuchinni I just peel, quarter, scrape out the seeds and slice into bite size pieces for stir fry or steaming. I like it anyway its cooked. Stir fry slightly with onion & add a few tomatoes or a can of tomatoes and stewed. Make cornbread and eat. I even add zuchinni to my spaghetti sauce.
Mart, that sounds like a great idea. I was planning on stir frying with tomatoes, but I think the onion will also be beneficial, and a bit of garlic. Yum. Here are my 4 cucumbers and 3 zucchinis: ( photo / image / picture from Beeker's Garden )
Thank you! I got another couple of normal sized zucchinis. I haven't decided what to do with the big ones. Sjoerd suggested stuffing them. That sounds so good, I definitely want to do that. I'm just looking for some good recipes. The cukes are done producing. I pulled the plant this past weekend. I'd like to pickle the ones I have left. We'll see.
Last time I grew zucchini (a few years back)I had a few large ones and the girl I used to worked with made zucchini bread out of them. Very tasty.
Beeker Zucchini bread is the only way I'll eat it. It is such a bland veggie I shouldn't mind eating it. Something about the taste I guess. Add to spaghetti sauce sounds like a great Idea. Your post about sharing your one tomato with your honey sounds like my honey and I sharing our bounty of one plum from our two plum trees. :'( Not sure why they do not fruit more. Oh well. They may make good fire wood.
