Reap What You Sow...

Oh, thank all the gods in this world and the next: I have just plucked the last of the zucchini off the vine. I should crack open that bottle of Prosecco I've got stashed in the back of the fridge and celebrate. Or maybe I'd be better off hitting myself over the head with it for growing zucchini in the first place.

Thankfully, it's not so hot today--only in the high 70s, which in comparison feels like snow might fall any minute after the scorching heat of the past months. Course, the reprieve is short-lived as it's back into the 90s by Monday...sigh.

So, while it's not a blast furnace for a change, I thought I could get some yard work done in the back. As I was weeding and tidying, I looked over the zucchini and the lemon cucumber plants and decided enough already. Time to pick the last of them and clean out the beds. And what a relief it is: No more watering twice a day, no more searching for new zucchini recipes, no more begging neighbors to pleasepleaseplease take them off my hands.


I still have these last few that I'll have to deal with, but suddenly I think I might enjoy one last stuffed zucchini dinner, and I love toasted zucchini bread. I have no problem with the cucumbers; they just get chopped into whatever salad I'm eating.

Next year I think I'll go back to pumpkins. No requirements other than water, and I can just stand back and watch them grow.  No recipe searches or begging involved.




All I have left now are the San Marzano tomatoes.  Once they've all ripened, I will make the sauce and freeze it for later.

They look like red peppers, or Roma tomatoes, don't they?  Well, until they're cut open, then they look like the inside of a green pepper: hollow with scattered seeds and white ribs.  That's why San Marzanos make such good, thick tomato paste: mostly meat with not much juice or pesky seeds.



At some point this Winter, when it's cold and blustery, I'll be making a big pot of spaghetti from these lovelies.  That first taste of the hearty, uber-tomato flavor is going to take me right back to hot scorching Summer days...

And I'll be so deliriously happy not to be hot and sweaty, I will smile with glee, revel in the chill, snug and cozy in my thermals, while I savor every delicious bite.