Vegetation Cogitation

"When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere."

Thus begins John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids. I read this book years ago, and it scared the bejeezus out of me. So did the movie. The Triffids were a kind of vegetable or plant that became, well, sentient and started taking over the planet after most of the Earth's citizens were blinded by green comet-like lights.

I was scared, too, by Invasion of the Body Snatchers in its various film incarnations. In that science-fiction flick, aliens travel to earth in seed pods. When the pods' spore is released, it forms into a sort of human clone, complete with the original human's memories.

I find tales where plants become beings with evil machinations for world domination to be quite creepy. After my harvest of zucchini today--11 in all--I am beginning to worry that the plants might uproot themselves and begin stomping around in my backyard, searching for a way to become masters of our planet. Especially when they get as large as the one on top in the picture. I've placed a quarter on it for scale. This zuke is only three days old. It frightens me.

I really don't understand how zucchini can grow so quickly. The sucker ways about 20 pounds, and that's no joke! It is really only good for shredding or stuffing at this point, but I feared that if I did not pluck it from the vine, it would become a monster.

Chocolate and Zucchini: A Delicious Pairing

I know, I know. Chocolate and zucchini together sounds a bit disgusting. But I assure you that it isn't! In fact, I made a Chocolate Zucchini Sheet Cake tonight! The zucchini doesn't really flavor the cake--the cocoa comes through strong and clear--but rather helps make the cake moist...while adding extra nutrition, of course. The icing on this sheet cake is still melting, so it's a little uneven in places, but it will even out into a kind of glaze as it cools. Chocolate heaven, I tell you!

I spent the rest of the afternoon picking zucchini again (thankfully, I'll have a few days reprieve from zucchini picking now while more grows). I thumbed through my copy of The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food: Easy Step-by-Step Instructions for Freezing, Drying, and Canning by Janet Chadwick (which is no longer in print, apparently, since it can be purchased at Amazon for a mere $103.14) and learned that I can tray freeze zucchini and then pack it in a freezer bag.

I also shredded a lot of the zucchini and packed the shreds in snack-size (1 cup) Ziploc bags and set them in the freezer. Once the packages are well frozen, I will slide several into a one-gallon Ziploc bag and date it.