zucchini zucchini zucchini

I have a lot of zucchini love this week. I missed last weeks post on zucchini love so I have a few dishes this week which make the zucchini the hero of the dish.

But first I am finally down to just one zucchini plant.  The first one I broke which was very sad as I had a brilliant supply from that plant. This week I had to pull another plant out as it was rotting away because it was being smothered by 3 pumpkins and another zucchini (yes they were planted far to close together). So I am down to 1 which I hope will still provide the family.

Come on little babies

 So I have been a bit busy trying out new zucchini recipes and they are pretty nice such as:

Zucchini and Basil soup (at least the basil is from the garden had to buy green zuchs in as my crop was doing quite so well). Check out the recipe and sexier photos of the soup at www.gourmettraveller.com.au/zucchini-and-basil-soup

Next up were some roasted courgettes. I sprinkled cayenne pepper, seasoned and topped off with mozzarella.  Threw them in the oven for about 20min @ 180 C. They were a nice accompaniment to dinner.

And finally Italian agrodolce zucchini with mint and chilli by Belinda Jefferies. These were really nice but I do find raw garlic a little overpowering so I think next time I will use less.

* Slice 1kg zucchini into thin lengths. Bbq them or chargrill them to get some colour on them.
* In a bowl add:
 3 garlic cloves finely chopped, 
A big handful of shredded mint, 
1 Tbs juice of a lemon
2-3 Tbs cider vinegar
Half a lemons zest
1-2 chilli
Salt and pepper
* Stir the zucchini through the vinegar mix and leave to soak in for 5 mins.

Pretty tasty and a great addition with the mint.

Rats, aphids and ants

Hooray I found a new cord and even managed to get other fancy bits and pieces that can upload onto the I-pad. And am now trying to manage this through the blogger app. I expect all you very clever people out there might be clever enough to have sorted this all out. But I figure I spend time working in the garden and a lot less time on computers.... Let me know if you use the app and if you find it easier or a hinderance.

Anyhow despite a range of blogs I had hope to talk about last week I thought I would discuss my corn instead.

Doesn't it look lovely? Well the rats, aphids and ants thought so. So in a bed 1700 x 2000 mm I managed to get 7, yes 7 cobs to take inside. The rats ate about 60% of the crop while the aphids attacked the rest. I have stripped the corn the rats started with and plan on giving them to the neighbours chickens who I am happy to let eat. I can only hope the rats starve now (wishful thinking).

I do hope your corn is doing a thousand times better than my patch at the moment. A least I now have a new patch to plant up in which is greatly exciting as I have much to add that might be pest unfriendly.

camera cord fail

Eek I can't find my camera cord to connect to the computer. And I have so much to show and tell. Soon I hope to be back to delight you

Zucchini Tuesday

Well I have a sad confession to make this week. I killed my best zucchini supplier. I didn't mean to it just happened to be hoovering over the lawn and didn't cope very well when I gently moved it aside. Now I really don't think I was that rough despite my mothers words 'you are a like a bull in a china shop'.  In fact I thought at first it was those rats. But then I remembered that in my haste to get the lawn mowed I picked up the offending overhanging branches up off the grass and it would seem I snapped it.

There was not much left to save once the growing and fruit part had no roots left. So I now have a gap. Not a very big one especially once the pumpkin takes hold.

At least there is another zucchini behind 

Thankfully I did many a small harvest or two yesterday.

Chilli glut saved from the rats

Oven dried (perhaps a bit too long as I forgot about them overnight)

Hope you have been enjoying your zucchini glut. Pop over to Louise's place and see what she is up to this week with her zucchini

Rain

Gosh isn't rain a gorgeous thing after such a long dry? Rain helps re-charge the garden and the gardener. It clears out the cobwebs. You can almost hear the garden sigh with appreciation. Hope the weather is kind to you wherever you are.