This is truly the beginning of the summer squash season. Last week there were a few, but now every day we’re picking more and more of these summer-long delights. Last night we enjoyed some grilled zucchini and patty pan squash. Even Enid, our two year old, loved it! There are many recipes we love to use squash for: raw with dip or hummus, zucchini bread, stuffed patty pan, and at the end of the season when they are growing faster than we can keep up we make Zu-canoes!

To make a zu-canoe take a zucchini, top cut off and seeds scooped out. Fill it with breadcrumbs, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Then bake till it’s tender. The best part of this way to use summer squash is the fact that it’s alright if the squash is as long as your arm or as big as your new born baby. (A friend actually brought us one when Jaden was born and we ate it for a week!)

A friend recently reminded me of a lesson she heard upon moving to a rural area. She asked a close neighbor if she worried about locking her car at night. The neighbor answered, “Only in August.” “August? Why only then?” she wondered. “If you don’t,” her neighbor replied, “You’ll go out to your car in the morning, ready to go to work, and find it filled with zucchinis!”

We promise we won’t bring summer squash to your house in the middle of the night. But we do hope that as well as pulling out the old recipes, you will learn new ways to enjoy:

Dunja – a flavorful, smooth skinned green zucchini
Costata Romanesco – a ribbed, green and white stripped zucchini
Soleil – a yellow variation of zucchini
Yellow Scallopini – a mottled green and yellow patty-pan type

Want to try a new idea for a crabcake-like flavor? As a native Marylander, no summer is complete without Old Bay seasoning. But it is not just for crabs; we add it to soup, corn on the cob, potato salad, and french fries. (And yes, we even like it on our ice cream.) During my 10-year stint as a vegetarian, I came upon this recipe and found that not only is it easy to make, but also that everyone in my family loves it!

Zucchini “Crab Cakes”
3 cups grated zucchini, water drained if necessary
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1 egg (optional)
1 Tbsp Old Bay

Mix together thoroughly. Heat a skillet to medium high. Make patties and place into pan. They will not hold form so do not make more than fit in a pan at one time. Toast both sides to medium brown.

A patch of carrots, a bed of arugula, a few rows of dill – many shades of green to make a garden that looks like a patchwork quilt. These past few days we’ve been hoeing and weeding like crazy and it seems like quilting to me. Anyone who has hand quilted knows how meditative each stitch can be, with many tiny bits coming together to make a beautiful masterpiece.

This year’s North Star garden has been quilted by many loving hands and is looking pretty good this afternoon. Seven of us spent the morning hoeing all the rows and hand weeding the beets and garlic. I’m sure it will take just a week for tiny weeds to start sprouting again, but it feels great to have worked hard together. It surely was hot, but it’s worth every stroke of the hoe to think of all the veggies that we’ll harvest in the next weeks and months.

As we were going down the rows we found that many of the seeds we planted did not germinate – and I’m learning the importance of irrigation. After the VERY wet spring it was hard to believe that the ground was so dry, but now we are putting down black irrigation tape with everything we plant. Now in our purple, yellow, and green patches of chard we’re adding black stripes like adding embroidery onto a patch of paisley in our quilt.

I’m looking forward to showing off the garden during our CSA member potluck later in June; it feels like sharing a bit of our lives from the last few weeks. We hope everyone who comes can appreciate all of the “stitches” we’ve sewn and enjoy the beauty of the colors of the living quilt.