Danger Danger Zucchini Season

Yes folks, it’s that time of the year again. The season gardeners overestimate the harvest of these dark green vegetable elongated hand grenades. When the growing season is just right, a plethora of these verdant vegetables appear in great abundance. These leafy plants with the charmingly orange blossoms suddenly become infested with darkly hued green monsters. Zucchinis could have been the next plague God had planned for Egypt.

Fellow church-goers now become stealthy and will slip one of these bulbous green monsters into the back seats of your cars. If you leave the car doors unlocked, you become a potential victim of the phantom zucchini sharer. Don’t get me wrong, these gracious gardeners are thinking of you and how excited you will be when you find one of these delicious dainties on your back seat. Hopefully you will find it before it bakes in the sun for several days, but never mind, it’s all a good gesture from a friend.

Zucchini recipes trade hands almost as quickly as money does at a gambling parlor. Promises of “It’s easy to make” and “It really tastes great” accompany the transactions. The instruction of “You can freeze it for use later.” I may even have some grated zucchini in the back of my freezer from twenty years ago that my wife Cindy made.

For the past week, I’ve been dodging donations, but when it was already cooked and generously offered, how could I refuse. It was a Mexican taco flavored half zucchini with ground beef, cheese, and salsa. I was still a bit leery. Cindy, in the past, made a zucchini with similar ingredients. She splint the zucchini, scooped out the seeds, then baked it stuffed with bread crumbs, cheese, and tomato sauce. I’m not sure whatever else she used, but I became so deathly sick after eating it, I have had a natural aversion to zucchinis with tomato sauce.

Then there is one good story about zucchini. My family and Bill, Deborah Detar with their family vacationed on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland, sustained by zucchini bread and “salt water.” We had a truly wonderful time with ten people stuffed into a beachside hotel room. I still have such a wonderful memory that’s remains anchored to the ugly dark green zucchini.