Latest / Family Tree Food Stories / What To Do With Zucchini: From Door Drop to Crime Scene Investigation

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What To Do With Zucchini: From Door Drop to Crime Scene Investigation · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:01
  Hey, Sylvia.
• 0:01
  Happy Zucchini show.
• 0:03
  Yeah.
• 0:04
  Zucchini's the star of the summer show.
• 0:07
  Its recipe.
• 0:08
  Oh boy.
• 0:09
  Prolific for sure.
• 0:10
  I think prolific.
• 0:11
  It grows and it grows and it grows.
• 0:14
  One plant can produce five to 10 pounds of zucchini.
• 0:20
  Is that just remarkable?
• 0:22
  Well, but, but I just learned something today.
• 0:25
  Did you know that there's actually a male.
• 0:28
  Zucchini flower and a female zucchini flower.
• 0:30
  Oh, yeah.
• 0:31
  Oh yeah.
• 0:32
  Right.
• 0:32
  And it's very complicated how they pollinate and what pollinates them all.
• 0:37
  Very, very interesting.
• 0:38
  But you know, I think the most fascinating thing I found out is
• 0:41
  that this thing began 7,000 years ago in the roots of the Americas,
• 0:45
  Mexico to Costa Rica and all of that.
• 0:47
  It
• 0:47
  started to grow back then.
• 0:49
  Oh, I, it was watched at the time.
• 0:51
  Right.
• 0:51
  And that's all anybody knew it as.
• 0:53
  And I love this.
• 0:54
  It was part of the three sisters, 11 three sisters, okay.
• 0:57
  Mm-hmm.
• 0:57
  Uh, beans, corn, and squash in.
• 1:00
  If you go like to Minnesota where there are a lot of Native American restaurants,
• 1:04
  right?
• 1:04
  They make all the food out of those three things.
• 1:07
  Isn't that challenging?
• 1:09
  I mean, think about it.
• 1:10
  You know?
• 1:10
  Uh, 'cause that's what they have.
• 1:12
  Well, they use other things, but I guess they use those predominantly.
• 1:15
  Those are there vegetable kinds of things.
• 1:17
  Yeah, they have meats because Right.
• 1:18
  It's whatever the people had anyway, that modern day zucchini was
• 1:23
  developed in Italy of all places.
• 1:25
  Isn't that cool?
• 1:27
  That's the pretty little one.
• 1:28
  But they started here in North and Central America, right?
• 1:31
  Yeah.
• 1:31
  In the Americas.
• 1:32
  Yeah.
• 1:33
  Okay.
• 1:33
  Yeah.
• 1:33
  But the modern day Z, I'll call it Z, you know, kind of catchy.
• 1:38
  Right?
• 1:38
  Z?
• 1:39
  Z like Zoro, zucchini is Zika.
• 1:43
  The Italian name, meaning squash is that delicate, immature
• 1:47
  fruit, and it's a fruit.
• 1:49
  Oh, love this.
• 1:51
  Because it has seeds, you know, like tomatoes.
• 1:53
  People think they're veggies.
• 1:55
  Yep.
• 1:55
  These are seeds, and then it's also called, in some cases, baby marrow beef.
• 2:02
  I was so intrigued by that because marrow always thinks
• 2:04
  of like marrow and bone, right?
• 2:07
  Yeah,
• 2:07
  but if you grow it big enough, it becomes marrow, which is
• 2:11
  probably not even a edible.
• 2:13
  I mean, you catch it when it's young and delicate.
• 2:16
  Right.
• 2:16
  Well, I guess
• 2:16
  marrow meaning the idea that it gets large and then there's that,
• 2:19
  the seed part in the middle that's soft and gooey kind of thing.
• 2:22
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:23
  So it's baby, baby marrow, and so that's, that's good.
• 2:28
  And then came into its own in the early part of the 20th
• 2:31
  century by Italian immigrants.
• 2:35
  I always thought of it as just such a rugged American right thing, which
• 2:38
  it started that way, but the actual modern day zucchini and who knows if
• 2:44
  we looked back and, and and examined.
• 2:46
  'cause I always think of squash as being big yellow Gord like things, you know?
• 2:50
  Exactly.
• 2:50
  Yeah.
• 2:51
  This is like green with like.
• 2:52
  Weird stripes and you know, things like that.
• 2:55
  Stripes.
• 2:55
  Stripes.
• 2:56
  It's like the zucchini went to jail.
• 2:59
  Here's another interesting factoid, though.
• 3:01
  It was highly prized in the victory gardens of World War ii, which were
• 3:06
  established all over the United States as small garden areas to help
• 3:11
  with the war effort and rationing.
• 3:13
  Hmm.
• 3:13
  And that was the way that small time people.
• 3:17
  With just, you know, small plots of land could contribute.
• 3:20
  They were called victory gardens.
• 3:21
  Well, you know, that makes sense because it's not that difficult
• 3:24
  to actually grow zucchini.
• 3:26
  Oh, it's very easy.
• 3:27
  Although I have heard people are having problems, but it's
• 3:30
  pretty easy to do.
• 3:31
  Yeah.
• 3:32
  Yeah.
• 3:32
  And the abundance, uh, there's another interesting thing about
• 3:35
  it, because of its abundance and.
• 3:37
  The prolific flowering of this plant.
• 3:40
  Uh, there are lots of themes in myths and, you know, mythology about birth abundance
• 3:46
  from God, rebirth, communal living.
• 3:49
  So it's all those things too.
• 3:51
  So fascinating.
• 3:52
  Fascinating.
• 3:53
  Yeah.
• 3:54
  But just for a moment, talk about that Z as a fruit.
• 3:58
  Right, right.
• 3:59
  And if you think about it, what do you think about all
• 4:02
  the things that have seeds.
• 4:03
  It's like it's sisters and it's brothers and sisters would be
• 4:06
  bell peppers, avocados, pumpkins, olives, olive tree, woman peas, and
• 4:12
  green beans, just to name a few.
• 4:14
  So are they fruits, not vegetables?
• 4:16
  They're fruits because they have.
• 4:19
  Seeds have seeds.
• 4:20
  Now it gets a little hard to figure that out.
• 4:23
  And it doesn't really matter, does it?
• 4:24
  Right.
• 4:25
  Because what you're looking for is savory additions to your table, not
• 4:29
  necessarily whether it's a fruit or not.
• 4:31
  I mean, tomatoes, I don't care.
• 4:32
  But it did make a difference in like the 18th century, 18th
• 4:36
  and 19th century on taxation.
• 4:38
  Oh, isn't that interesting?
• 4:39
  Hmm.
• 4:39
  Because vegetables will be taxed differently than, than fruits.
• 4:42
  So that's kind of interesting.
• 4:45
  And so those are sort of the background pieces.
• 4:48
  Yeah.
• 4:48
  I haven't paid attention to my tax bill at the grocery, whether fruits
• 4:51
  and vegetables are taxed differently.
• 4:53
  I'll have to check that one out, but I didn't think about that.
• 4:56
  I was reading that corn on the cob.
• 4:58
  'cause you know, you sitting here like, well, okay, well what has seeds?
• 5:01
  Well each of the little kernels is a seed.
• 5:04
  But it's a vegetable, a corn on a cob.
• 5:06
  A corn is a vegetable.
• 5:08
  I think that's very confusing.
• 5:10
  It is.
• 5:11
  And beyond anything anybody needs to really care about.
• 5:14
  Right.
• 5:14
  I think my
• 5:14
  brain is going to seed, so maybe it's a fruit.
• 5:19
  So then you have of course, how we use zucchini.
• 5:24
  And you've got, you've got some zucchini tails, right?
• 5:27
  Oh, I've got a ton of zucchini tails, but I know do Oh, fascinating ones.
• 5:33
  Yeah.
• 5:33
  I can't wait to hear those.
• 5:35
  The giant Z.
• 5:36
  Yeah.
• 5:36
  Well, what do you think how zucchini is most used in the kitchen?
• 5:40
  Hmm.
• 5:41
  I'm gonna say it's most used
• 5:44
  sauteed as bread.
• 5:46
  Everybody makes loaves of zucchini bread.
• 5:49
  Oh yeah.
• 5:49
  Think too.
• 5:50
  Yeah.
• 5:51
  It's so obvious, right?
• 5:53
  Yeah.
• 5:53
  And I mean, people will have freezers full, and then there's
• 5:56
  that stealth giving thing.
• 5:58
  Leave a loaf on your neighbor's doorstep.
• 6:01
  So August 8th is leave a zucchini on your neighbor's doorstep.
• 6:06
  And I researched that a little bit because I thought that was hysterical, having
• 6:10
  been through the zucchini abundance wave as in years past as kids, but.
• 6:16
  I never heard of leave a zucchini on your neighbor's doorstep.
• 6:18
  I don't either.
• 6:19
  I'm trying to think, which I think is hysterical.
• 6:22
  Well, they say it was started in Illinois, but then I found some
• 6:24
  conflicting reports saying that actually started in Pennsylvania.
• 6:28
  Either way, the crafty character who wanted to get rid of the abundance of the
• 6:33
  Z fruit will say, was kind of a sly dog.
• 6:37
  Yeah.
• 6:37
  I could say to do that.
• 6:38
  Right?
• 6:39
  Yeah.
• 6:39
  And then there are also variations on zucchini.
• 6:42
  There's albino.
• 6:43
  Zucchini.
• 6:44
  Hmm.
• 6:45
  Uh, one woman found it in her flower bed and she's like, where did that come from?
• 6:49
  Well, the zucchini sneaks around at night, therefore it becomes
• 6:52
  different colors in the morning.
• 6:53
  It's just almost an intelligent plant.
• 6:56
  It knows.
• 6:58
  Whoops, where has my zucchini been?
• 7:01
  Oh, that sounds rather perverted.
• 7:02
  It knows, and it
• 7:04
  plants its seed in your flower garden.
• 7:10
  And then you have the male and female flowers in 'em mean you
• 7:13
  just got, you know, a torrid romance thing going on here.
• 7:16
  You know,
• 7:17
  God, watch out Hugh Hefner.
• 7:19
  Ooh, maybe we shouldn't say that.
• 7:21
  We are a family show.
• 7:24
  Yeah.
• 7:24
  So anyway, you've got, uh, then you've got of course all the uses.
• 7:27
  If you, if you Google, you know, what can I use this stuff for?
• 7:31
  'cause I mean, unless you wanna give it all to your neighbors and
• 7:33
  with ring cameras, I'd be careful.
• 7:34
  You're very careful.
• 7:35
  Right.
• 7:37
  You never know that could start a war between you and your neighbor.
• 7:40
  Well,
• 7:41
  unless you dress like a zucchini and then maybe you blend in, I don't know.
• 7:45
  That'd
• 7:45
  be a great thing.
• 7:46
  Go to a Halloween party as a zucchini and a corn on the comm,
• 7:50
  you know, both long and slender.
• 7:51
  I. Make you look good, right?
• 7:53
  Mm-hmm.
• 7:55
  I guess right.
• 7:56
  What you can do.
• 7:57
  Well, you know, I've noticed, like in my air fryer cookbook, Uhhuh, there are
• 8:00
  all these many variations now on chips.
• 8:03
  Oh.
• 8:03
  And we've done is potato chip show, right?
• 8:05
  Right.
• 8:05
  But what about zucchini chips?
• 8:07
  Mm, sweet potato chips?
• 8:09
  Well, sweet potato chips are good.
• 8:10
  Right, but zucchini chips does.
• 8:12
  That idea doesn't turn me on too much.
• 8:14
  Well, you
• 8:15
  think about it, you just cover it with olive oil and your favorite spices.
• 8:18
  Put it in your air fryer.
• 8:20
  And I've done that before with sweet potatoes.
• 8:21
  I hadn't even thought about it with zucchini.
• 8:23
  No, but you know, why not?
• 8:25
  I mean, that's, that's a possibility.
• 8:26
  It's a healthy, crispy snack.
• 8:28
  You can, that's one check mark you can do for zucchini.
• 8:31
  Healthy
• 8:32
  green.
• 8:34
  Right?
• 8:34
  Well, you dehydrate it and I've heard people dehydrating it and
• 8:37
  blending it into flour and using it and mixing with regular flour.
• 8:41
  Kind of like our Christmas tree story back in December where you take the inner side
• 8:46
  of the Christmas tree and you blend that down and put it into flour and mix it up.
• 8:49
  But zucchini.
• 8:50
  Yeah.
• 8:50
  Nancy, I
• 8:50
  thought of you and I was traveling through Virginia the other day
• 8:53
  in the mountains of Virginia and I ran into Ash County, Virginia,
• 8:57
  where they raise Christmas trees.
• 8:59
  They are lined up on the mountainsides and I'm like, Nancy would have a field
• 9:05
  day here eating those Christmas trees.
• 9:08
  Did you get hungry while you
• 9:09
  were driving, looking through at all those trees?
• 9:11
  I
• 9:11
  know.
• 9:11
  I thought of you.
• 9:12
  Isn't that weird or what?
• 9:13
  Anyway, listen to this about Z Flower, okay?
• 9:16
  Uh, 'cause you can use it, okay?
• 9:17
  Right?
• 9:18
  Yeah.
• 9:18
  But it says to be careful, you replace only up to half.
• 9:24
  With the regular flour, you mix it because, because zucchini, whatever
• 9:30
  that creates the flour is very absorbent and can make the resulting food dry.
• 9:35
  Dry.
• 9:36
  Not gum, not gumming Well, okay.
• 9:38
  So, um hmm.
• 9:40
  You gotta be careful with your zucchinis.
• 9:42
  Uh, yeah.
• 9:43
  Zucchini flour can
• 9:44
  be a little dangerous, I guess.
• 9:46
  Z Zorro zucchini plant.
• 9:49
  Oh.
• 9:49
  And they say it's very good with chocolate.
• 9:52
  Zucchini has a very earthy taste.
• 9:54
  It's gluten-free.
• 9:55
  Oh, like brownies?
• 9:56
  Like zucchini, brownies, I guess.
• 9:57
  Chocolate.
• 9:58
  Yeah.
• 9:58
  Yeah.
• 9:59
  Brownies.
• 9:59
  I think you could do that Well if you did the flour thing.
• 10:02
  And then you've also got zucchini sushi.
• 10:04
  You could use thin strips of zucchini as a wrapper.
• 10:07
  Oh, that would be good.
• 10:08
  I could see that.
• 10:09
  Yes.
• 10:09
  Replacing seaweed for a fresh, crunchy twist.
• 10:13
  I could.
• 10:13
  I could see that.
• 10:14
  Okay.
• 10:14
  That could be delicious.
• 10:15
  Yes.
• 10:15
  There's zucchini pasta.
• 10:18
  Spiralize zucchini into noodles called zoodles and serve with sauces.
• 10:24
  Alright.
• 10:24
  We've tried
• 10:25
  that, we've tried that.
• 10:26
  I, I, I put the kibosh on that.
• 10:27
  And did it work out?
• 10:28
  No, no.
• 10:29
  You know what?
• 10:30
  The interesting thing about zucchini is that there's a lot of water in zucchini.
• 10:33
  So when you make these spiralized noodles on it, doodles, as you call them, um,
• 10:38
  they're, and then you try and cook them as if they were regular noodles.
• 10:42
  You don't cook them in water, you just mix them in with the pasta sauce or anything.
• 10:46
  It's an awful lot of water that comes out of it.
• 10:48
  So.
• 10:49
  I just find them kind of mushy and I, I don't particularly like them,
• 10:53
  although they say if you squish them, then the water comes out.
• 10:56
  I've tried squishing, but you know, that's too much work.
• 11:00
  You know, I'd really love to hear from people who listen to this podcast.
• 11:04
  I wanna see if they've actually used zucchini flour.
• 11:07
  Because it seems like to me it'd make a great thing for people
• 11:11
  who are gluten sensitive even.
• 11:13
  Well, if you're still mixing it with regular flour, probably not.
• 11:16
  I'm gonna try that.
• 11:18
  Well, and I even questioned this.
• 11:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 11:20
  It's very absorbent and it makes food dry.
• 11:24
  I mean, I know, I read that.
• 11:25
  That sounds counterintuitive, right?
• 11:27
  How could that work?
• 11:28
  Silence.
• 11:29
  The silence doesn't sound right there.
• 11:31
  Can somebody help us out?
• 11:33
  And tell us what they do and pairing with chocolate.
• 11:36
  Hmm.
• 11:37
  And
• 11:37
  see what that is like.
• 11:39
  I know I read it that way.
• 11:40
  It was weird.
• 11:41
  Uh, zucchini frets.
• 11:42
  Where you grate zucchini mixed with eggs, flour and spices and pan fry
• 11:46
  for savory fritters, add corn herbs.
• 11:49
  I've
• 11:49
  had those like the almost like, um, potato pancakes.
• 11:52
  Yeah.
• 11:53
  Uh, or like latkes, you know, Bob makes great latkes.
• 11:56
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:57
  So we've had those,
• 11:58
  or even bread variations like jalapeno.
• 12:00
  I'm not a spicy people do that with corn bread.
• 12:03
  That's too hot and spicy for me, so Interesting.
• 12:05
  Very interesting.
• 12:06
  And then your more traditional
• 12:08
  things are
• 12:09
  oui.
• 12:09
  There you go.
• 12:10
  Pickled zucchini.
• 12:12
  That sounds disgust.
• 12:13
  You know, pickling is the rage.
• 12:14
  I know.
• 12:16
  Pickling is the rage.
• 12:17
  Do you like pickled things at the farmer's market this morning,
• 12:20
  um, we tried a pickled nut.
• 12:23
  So it was a pickled nut.
• 12:24
  A pickled nut.
• 12:25
  A nut.
• 12:26
  It was a, um, uh, oh, I'm trying to think of the name of the nut.
• 12:29
  The, anyway, but, but it was a pickled nut and I thought, ooh, pickled nuts.
• 12:34
  Did it taste good?
• 12:35
  Mm. Yeah.
• 12:36
  I could leave that one.
• 12:38
  Yeah.
• 12:39
  I like pickles.
• 12:40
  I mean, I like the, you know, the ones that are shaped like
• 12:42
  a cucumber, right, right.
• 12:44
  Or sliced up slicers, they call 'em.
• 12:46
  Yeah, this one did.
• 12:47
  This one didn't do anything for me.
• 12:48
  You know, some
• 12:48
  of those things with these kind of vegetables.
• 12:51
  My father never grew and he was the grower in the family.
• 12:54
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:54
  And he never grew zucchini.
• 12:56
  And maybe there was a reason for that because he didn't want, he,
• 12:59
  he didn't have any neighbors.
• 13:00
  We lived on a farm.
• 13:01
  Right.
• 13:02
  He couldn't, couldn't off offload it to anybody but.
• 13:05
  There's just something about zucchini doesn't look appetizing to me.
• 13:08
  Now, when you make zucchini bread, how do you make it?
• 13:12
  Well,
• 13:12
  do
• 13:12
  you grind it up?
• 13:13
  No, you grate it.
• 13:15
  You grate it, uh, you know, grade, you grate it by hand and then you mix it.
• 13:18
  It's like a nut bread, you know, like a breakfast bread.
• 13:21
  So it's a quick rise.
• 13:22
  You know, it's a, you don't have to rice, it's a quick bread.
• 13:24
  Yeah, like banana nut bread, and then you put in it, and it's very good.
• 13:28
  When we moved from Long Island to Massachusetts, my parents were in a
• 13:32
  bit of a financial strait because.
• 13:33
  Moving a business in a factory from New York.
• 13:36
  They were battling some challenges, financial challenges down in there.
• 13:38
  And they never let us know as kids.
• 13:40
  So we didn't know any difference.
• 13:41
  And Dad made a garden in the backyard probably.
• 13:45
  As I look back now as a way to of necessity, help feed our family right
• 13:50
  out of necessity, and he'd go back there with his scotch after coming
• 13:54
  back from work and bless his heart, water, the garden, and make sure it was
• 13:58
  growing and take care of the critters.
• 14:00
  That's a
• 14:00
  sensible man, right?
• 14:01
  You know,
• 14:01
  gotta take care of your garden with a scotch in your hand, you know?
• 14:05
  Something.
• 14:05
  Yeah, it makes that contemplation a whole lot better.
• 14:08
  You know,
• 14:09
  zucchini looks a little bit better with a scotch in your hand too, probably.
• 14:12
  But I do have a zucchini story.
• 14:14
  We have lots of zucchini stories, but let's get to those after this quick break.
• 14:20
  Okay.
• 14:20
  Okay,
• 14:27
  so back, back to gardening with scotch in hand and zucchini, now you're
• 14:33
  talking.
• 14:34
  Right.
• 14:34
  You can substitute bourbon.
• 14:36
  You know, I, there are in many different wine.
• 14:38
  It depends upon where you're from, right?
• 14:39
  Wine.
• 14:40
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:41
  Well, wine in the stem, you need a good, you got a good Tumblr.
• 14:44
  It's not gonna tip over in a garden, so you need something.
• 14:47
  Although the plants might like it, you know, they say
• 14:49
  they like coffee.
• 14:50
  I know, right?
• 14:52
  We put our coffee grinds in the garden, but coffee grinds.
• 14:55
  But back to the zucchini.
• 14:56
  So one, one day we, my dad noticed that the zucchini were disappearing and
• 15:02
  being eaten, and it turns out, yeah, it turns out there was a wood chuck in Oh.
• 15:08
  The backfield that was coming in.
• 15:09
  So we, he tried to figure out how do you get rid of this thing
• 15:13
  that's eating all our vegetables?
• 15:14
  And ultimately he ended up asking the local farmers.
• 15:17
  And the farmers said, well, you take smoke bombs and you put them in
• 15:20
  where you find one hole and then the smoke will come up the other hole,
• 15:24
  and then you fill in the two holes.
• 15:25
  Not once you find out where they are.
• 15:26
  Right.
• 15:27
  Well that didn't work other than the backfield looked kind of smoky.
• 15:31
  We had seven acres and not all of it was farmed, but you know, in and garden.
• 15:35
  It was a small little plot.
• 15:36
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:37
  So that didn't work.
• 15:38
  And then, um, Donald Jenkins, who lived down the street from us, a local old
• 15:42
  time, ex generation, Massachusetts farmer, said, you know, Stewart.
• 15:47
  You gotta get that guy and you gotta pitchfork him and then you cut his head
• 15:52
  off and you stick it on a stick for a sign for all the other woodchucks.
• 15:56
  Well, my dad, he'll
• 16:00
  try anything with scotch.
• 16:01
  Right.
• 16:03
  The glassful scotch being in a household full of girls, right?
• 16:06
  No, two girls and mom.
• 16:07
  He was very proud of himself.
• 16:09
  He pitch forked that sucker cut off his head and stuck the stake on it,
• 16:13
  and stuck the stick on the stake.
• 16:15
  And he said, don't go back in the garden.
• 16:17
  Yeah,
• 16:18
  right.
• 16:20
  Gives no meaning to that song.
• 16:22
  If a good tuck could Chuck.
• 16:24
  What is it?
• 16:26
  Zucchini?
• 16:26
  The Z. The mighty Z, yes.
• 16:30
  Oh, so that was, that was one of our zucchini stories and yes, the zucchini.
• 16:35
  Zucchini, everything.
• 16:37
  Oh my God.
• 16:37
  We had zucchini every night for dinner.
• 16:39
  We had zucchini succotash, we had zucchini with, with you name it,
• 16:44
  baked, boiled, broiled and fried.
• 16:47
  We had zucchini bread, so there was no room in the refrigerator or a freezer
• 16:51
  for anything other than zucchini bread.
• 16:53
  Oh,
• 16:53
  other things.
• 16:54
  I'm just curious.
• 16:55
  Oh, yes.
• 16:56
  But that was, that was the most prolific, I mean.
• 16:58
  Oh, yeah.
• 16:58
  I mean, we had, um, what else did he grow?
• 17:01
  Well, it was yellow, zucchini and, and green.
• 17:04
  Well, squash and, and zucchini, which grew pretty easily.
• 17:07
  We had a, a patch of, um, asparagus, which was left there because asparagus
• 17:12
  takes a long time to actually, yeah.
• 17:15
  Grow or set itself.
• 17:16
  But apparently the, um, the people, the couple, the couple of generations
• 17:20
  before us had a big asparagus plot, so we discovered that by chance.
• 17:25
  Mm-hmm.
• 17:25
  Tomatoes, of course, uh, those didn't always grow so well, but we had the
• 17:29
  tomatoes, Brussels sprouts and lettuce.
• 17:33
  Lots of lettuce.
• 17:34
  That worked really well, except I don't like picking lettuce
• 17:36
  because you get all the.
• 17:37
  Grit in the sand and you have to wash it really well.
• 17:40
  And it's a pain in the neck.
• 17:41
  Yeah.
• 17:42
  Not that you don't wash lettuce anyway, but it's,
• 17:44
  I have, uh, nightmares of bushels of green beans being
• 17:47
  put before me to ruin my summer
• 17:50
  days.
• 17:50
  We didn't do green beans.
• 17:51
  Those didn't work too well.
• 17:53
  And, uh, Brussels sprouts.
• 17:55
  I love Brussels sprouts, so there's some other things, but those are
• 17:58
  the things that I remember most of.
• 18:00
  But zucchini, the mighty zucchini was the most prolific in the garden.
• 18:07
  Sounds like it.
• 18:08
  Yeah.
• 18:08
  It's a survivor.
• 18:10
  Yes, yes.
• 18:11
  Had survived many generations.
• 18:13
  Yes.
• 18:13
  So
• 18:14
  that's our zucchini story.
• 18:15
  Did your
• 18:15
  family,
• 18:16
  did they preserve any of it?
• 18:17
  Oh, heck no.
• 18:18
  Because preservation?
• 18:19
  No, no, no, no, no.
• 18:20
  Mom and I tried canning once.
• 18:21
  I will never do that if my life depends upon it.
• 18:24
  Absolutely.
• 18:25
  Never get, my sister does Cannings like God love her, but nope.
• 18:28
  Yeah, my mother can.
• 18:29
  Nope.
• 18:29
  Mom and I were like, Hmm, you know what, we can kiss this one goodbye.
• 18:34
  Yeah.
• 18:34
  Not fun.
• 18:35
  Not fun.
• 18:35
  Yeah.
• 18:36
  Uh, well, yeah, and you can freeze it too, but I mean, you know, uh, so
• 18:40
  you'd have a zucchini all winter long.
• 18:42
  Right.
• 18:42
  A lot of people do that with tomato sauces.
• 18:44
  Well, tomato juice.
• 18:45
  Yeah.
• 18:46
  We put the question out to some people about what do you do with zucchini and do
• 18:49
  having any zucchini stories And somebody came back with this is really fascinating.
• 18:55
  Um, we'll have to put the.
• 18:57
  What the, maybe you'll put the recipe on the Instagram or maybe the Facebook page,
• 19:00
  but somebody came back and said, you can make a mock apple pie using zucchini.
• 19:06
  No.
• 19:07
  Yeah.
• 19:08
  Nuh
• 19:09
  nuh.
• 19:09
  I'll
• 19:10
  have to try that one because somehow, not the crust, but the actual filling.
• 19:15
  Yeah.
• 19:15
  Yeah.
• 19:17
  You'd have to put a lot of sugar in it to get
• 19:18
  me.
• 19:19
  Apparently
• 19:19
  it's made
• 19:20
  on April,
• 19:20
  but then you have to for rhubarb, you know, so maybe it works.
• 19:23
  It's
• 19:23
  used on April Fool's day.
• 19:27
  Just don't, just don't tell me that's what it's, but I would imagine,
• 19:31
  remember how we, well, uh, was it the last episode of the episode
• 19:35
  before we talked about potato chips?
• 19:37
  Yeah.
• 19:37
  I am thinking that if you make a zucchini pie, even if it's a zucchini
• 19:41
  quiche, right, because you can make zucchini quiche and that's pretty good.
• 19:44
  Yeah.
• 19:44
  Well, zucchini, but instead.
• 19:46
  Instead of the crust, why not make potato chip crusts?
• 19:50
  Right.
• 19:50
  Hmm.
• 19:51
  That's an idea.
• 19:52
  There you go.
• 19:52
  So I just pulled that one out of my, my sweet little head.
• 19:55
  That makes me think of a popular pie in Kentucky called Transparent Pie.
• 19:58
  I haven't heard of that one.
• 19:59
  And I'm like, what's the point of a transparent pie?
• 20:02
  I know, right?
• 20:03
  It would just have to be sugar basically.
• 20:05
  You know, I. Maybe butter.
• 20:06
  I, I don't know.
• 20:07
  Transparent pie.
• 20:08
  Yeah, zucchini pie.
• 20:10
  You can have those things.
• 20:11
  Give me a good old banana.
• 20:13
  Yeah.
• 20:13
  Yeah.
• 20:13
  Well,
• 20:13
  the story I'm making, the apple pie outta zucchini came from
• 20:17
  that was, uh, bet Sullivan.
• 20:19
  Oh.
• 20:19
  And uh, that was part of, also, she mentioned the August 8th.
• 20:22
  You know, leave a zucchini on your neighbor's front door.
• 20:25
  I did several other people.
• 20:27
  You could make 15 pies
• 20:28
  on one.
• 20:29
  I know and still have plenty left over.
• 20:31
  Karen
• 20:31
  Lynch said that her German Shepherd likes to eat them on the vine.
• 20:35
  They have no dog eating zucchini.
• 20:38
  Alright, that was a good one.
• 20:39
  No, that's a good one.
• 20:41
  Let me see what else came.
• 20:43
  Um, so, uh oh.
• 20:46
  Uh, one of Phyllis.
• 20:47
  Baum, I think is how we pronounce her last name.
• 20:50
  She said her story is rather boring.
• 20:51
  She says once one year she had almost a hundred pounds of zucchini and it ended
• 20:55
  up shredded, frozen, drained, dehydrated, powdered, makes a nice addition to
• 20:59
  regular bread flour like we talked about.
• 21:02
  And in the morning she added it to eggs, banana bread, breakfast smoothies,
• 21:05
  soups, and even zucchini bread.
• 21:07
  So.
• 21:08
  I think she's pretty green.
• 21:11
  I wish she'd answered that question.
• 21:12
  How do you make the flour and how do you mix it with regular flo?
• 21:16
  Oh, well, so here's, here's what I heard.
• 21:19
  You take the zucchini and you, you probably slice it up, and
• 21:22
  then you dehydrate it so it's, you know, all dry and crispy, and
• 21:26
  then you blend it in the blender.
• 21:27
  So it's all, well, it's not shredded, but it's pulverized into a flower.
• 21:32
  Okay, and then you add either a half or only a third.
• 21:36
  You don't put too much in the, like you said, too much in the
• 21:39
  flour, but otherwise, yeah.
• 21:42
  Mm-hmm.
• 21:42
  Okay.
• 21:42
  Well, maybe that's why, because you dehydrate it.
• 21:45
  That's interesting.
• 21:46
  It's a lot of science to that, but you know, there's a lot of science to cooking.
• 21:49
  I know.
• 21:49
  Well, um, you know, measurements and all that stuff and what, you know,
• 21:54
  cookies, you can make three batches of cookies and they can all be different
• 21:57
  based on how much butter you use when you put it, what you put in first.
• 22:00
  Right.
• 22:01
  My chef always told me that.
• 22:03
  So, um, let me see.
• 22:04
  There was another woman, um, Leslie Vance.
• 22:07
  She said she was, she was a city gal who married a country boy and
• 22:10
  ended up moving to the rural area as a good country wife always does.
• 22:14
  Right.
• 22:14
  And she was put in charge of the garden, never having gardened before.
• 22:18
  She had no idea what she was doing.
• 22:20
  Yeah.
• 22:20
  Sounds like me.
• 22:20
  So, um.
• 22:22
  She knew that her, her new, um, husband liked zucchini, so she wanted
• 22:27
  to make sure she had an adequate supply of that for bread and pickles,
• 22:32
  and I see where this is going.
• 22:33
  Right on other things.
• 22:34
  So somehow she translated the idea that she needed.
• 22:38
  12 hills because you grow zucchini on these little hills.
• 22:41
  Little mounds is a particular way that you grow zucchini, not just
• 22:45
  flat, but you build these little mounds so it sort of grows over.
• 22:47
  And she put three seeds in each hill or mound now Uhoh, three times, 12 times.
• 22:57
  The amount of zucchini that's Oh, I
• 22:59
  see.
• 22:59
  Could you even see their house as you approached?
• 23:02
  I know.
• 23:02
  So she said she was, needless to say she was inundated with zucchini
• 23:06
  after dental daily inspections.
• 23:08
  She figured she made the Guinness World Book of Records with the amount of
• 23:12
  zucchini that she probably grew that year.
• 23:15
  And um, she also made the grave mistake that the hens actually only liked.
• 23:20
  This is funny.
• 23:21
  She made the mistake, she thought that hens only like to lay one egg a day.
• 23:26
  So she figured if I needed, you know, two dozen eggs per week, she needs, so
• 23:32
  that's, um, like 24 chickens, right?
• 23:38
  Whoops.
• 23:39
  Too many zucchini, too many eggs.
• 23:41
  Yeah.
• 23:41
  The farmer, yeah, she used to ditch the eggs and the zucchini
• 23:45
  along the way on her routes to friends and neighbors or strangers.
• 23:48
  So I think that's pretty funny, but that's, that's a good one.
• 23:53
  I'd love to know where she ended up, right?
• 23:56
  Well, she married the same guy, but you know, did she, what did she
• 24:00
  learn out of all that experience?
• 24:01
  That's great.
• 24:02
  I mean, that's so neat.
• 24:03
  Too much of a good thing is too
• 24:05
  much.
• 24:06
  Yeah.
• 24:07
  Not necessarily a good thing.
• 24:08
  I love stories.
• 24:09
  Yeah.
• 24:10
  Living and learning, right.
• 24:12
  Janice Murray mentioned zucchini butter.
• 24:14
  Well, that's kind of interesting.
• 24:16
  Course I never heard of zucchini butter.
• 24:17
  Never.
• 24:18
  But apparently it's not butter.
• 24:20
  Like in like milk butter.
• 24:22
  Like butter, yeah.
• 24:23
  It's kind of like a. I, I would call like a salsa looking kind of thing that you
• 24:28
  put it on like almost like a salsa jam.
• 24:30
  Ohsa.
• 24:30
  Like
• 24:30
  pico or something like that.
• 24:33
  Yeah.
• 24:33
  Yeah.
• 24:33
  So yeah, you can put it in that too.
• 24:34
  Pico.
• 24:34
  Yep.
• 24:35
  Um, other people said, mentioned zucchini qui as a really good one to do.
• 24:40
  That I'm gonna imagine I haven't tried zucchini quiche, but um, I haven't.
• 24:45
  But that sounds it could be good.
• 24:46
  Well, again, because it's watery, I would think that that's kind of tough
• 24:49
  as well, but, well, I wonder if you could also add it to, um, sauce.
• 24:54
  Like you're always trying to find something for your kids mm-hmm.
• 24:56
  That they'll eat.
• 24:57
  Mm-hmm.
• 24:57
  Like pizza sauce.
• 24:59
  You could grind it up and add it.
• 25:01
  As of you could do that with any vegetable, but you know,
• 25:04
  that's one way to use zucchini.
• 25:06
  Is to mix it in with a vegetable, with a tomato
• 25:09
  sauce that the kids
• 25:10
  are
• 25:10
  familiar with.
• 25:11
  Well, that makes sense.
• 25:11
  Yep.
• 25:11
  Yep.
• 25:12
  Yeah, that was sort of like a rat chewy.
• 25:14
  And phy also mentioned putting it in breakfast smoothies.
• 25:17
  That sounds disgusting.
• 25:18
  I'm not eating b zucchini for breakfast, but, um, but we have a really interesting
• 25:23
  story that we're gonna end on.
• 25:26
  And that is from, let me get her name.
• 25:30
  God, she was hysterical.
• 25:31
  I love this story.
• 25:32
  It is from Bette, uh, what's be Bette's last name.
• 25:36
  Bet Sullivan Bet Sullivan.
• 25:38
  And she is, it's worth waiting for folks.
• 25:40
  Oh, the, this is the Grand Caper.
• 25:45
  This is a story about how a zucchini solved a crime.
• 25:51
  So just hang tight because I think you're gonna like
• 25:55
  this one.
• 25:56
  Uh, no, you will.
• 26:02
  Well, now that we've solved the great
• 26:05
  zucchini caper, Sylvia, and he's been put away, I think it's right.
• 26:10
  I think it's time to put this one to bed and Well, maybe I'll dream of zucchini.
• 26:17
  I don't know about you.
• 26:18
  Yeah, let's find
• 26:19
  some more creative ways to use that beautiful plant.
• 26:22
  Delicate as it is.
• 26:24
  Don't stuff your pillow with it though,
• 26:26
  as if I can't go that far.
• 26:27
  No, for sure.
• 26:29
  Right, but maybe you can use the flowers for lots of different things too.
• 26:33
  Yep.
• 26:34
  There you go.
• 26:35
  Well, no, you can use the flowers for lots of sweet dreams and
• 26:37
  delicious treats, so Oh yeah.
• 26:40
  Oh yeah.
• 26:41
  If you haven't tried zucchini, give it a try in many forms and may all
• 26:46
  your zucchini dreams come true.
• 26:49
  Take care.
• 26:49
  Bye-bye.
• 26:50
  Goodbye.