Waiting for Zucchini

This is the time of year, if you're a gardener with access to sunlight, that your neighbors lock their car doors so you can't make a surprise zucchini deposit.

But in the 16 years that we've lived here on the White River, the trees all around us as well as the ones in our yard have grown a whole lot taller. When we moved here, our front yard (our backyard is actually a steep slope that descends some 30 feet to the river) was very hot and open in the summer. Every year, about the third week of July, the grass on the upper slope of the yard was brown and dry.

Now our yard is much cooler and filled with gardens, mostly flower, but I still try to keep my hand in on the veggie front.

Which is all to say that our squash are way behind those of other gardeners. But there are lots of blossoms on everything—yellow crookneck, patty pan, carnival, hubbard, and our zucchini (Cucurbita pepo). I am ever hopeful (a rather constant state of mind in a gardener) that I will be making tons of zucchini bread later this month and grilling up the yellow crookneck.

Zucchini bread recipe to follow when the squash comes in.