Week 31: Attack of the Squash People

Attack of the Squash People

And thus the people every year
in the valley of humid July
did sacrifice themselves
to the long green phallic god
and eat and eat and eat.
They're coming, they're on us,
the long striped gourds, the silky
babies, the hairy adolescents,
the lumpy vast adults
like the trunks of green elephants.
Recite fifty zucchini recipes!

Zucchini tempura; creamed soup;
sauté with olive oil and cumin,
tomatoes, onion; frittata;
casserole of lamb; baked
topped with cheese; marinated;
stuffed; stewed; driven
through the heart like a stake.

Get rid of old friends: they too
have gardens and full trunks.
Look for newcomers: befriend
them in the post office, unload
on them and run. Stop tourists
in the street. Take truckloads
to Boston. Give to your Red Cross.
Beg on the highway: please
take my zucchini, I have a crippled
mother at home with heartburn.

Sneak out before dawn to drop
them in other people's gardens,
in baby buggies at churchdoors.
Shot, smuggling zucchini into
mailboxes, a federal offense.

With a suave reptilian glitter
you bask among your raspy
fronds sudden and huge as
alligators. You give and give
too much, like summer days
limp with heat, thunderstorms
bursting their bags on our heads,
as we salt and freeze and pickle
for the too little to come.

                            - Marge Piercy

Confession - I'm sick of zucchini.  Typically I love it, but we have gotten SO many zucchinis off of one stupid plant that I am at a loss of what to do with them all.  I slice and fry them in olive oil for dinner.  I added zucchini chunks and cherry tomatoes to our alfredo pasta the other night.  I dropped one off on my run at a friend's house.  I gave some to a neighbor who lingered too long in his car across the street.  I attempted to make chocolate chip zucchini bread - which normally I love, but I didn't have any eggs so I tried a vegan recipe. . .let's just say it was a major fail.  I am running out of ideas and yet every day I go outside and there is another monstrous zucchini threatening to take over the entire garden box!  I'm zucchinied out.  Unfortunately our one plant has other motives; nothing is stopping it now.

So I have started to get creative.

That's right: smoothies!  In an effort to get my little boy to consume more fruits and vegetables, I have started making fruit/veg smoothies.  Green smoothies seem to be the popular thing these days, but I have higher standards - they can't look like poop, they can't taste like dirt, and they can't be lumpy.  I know things like spinach and kale are ridiculously good for you, but they just don't meet the above mentioned requirements.  So I have moved past the extremely healthy and tried to find an acceptable alternative; I've settled on zucchini, sweet potato, and carrot.  Since we have zucchini coming out of our ears, I have started peeling, chopping, boiling, pureeing, and freezing it in ice cube trays; that way I can just pull out a couple cubes along with whatever fruit we have around the house that is past it's prime, throw it in a cup with some milk, sometimes adding a small scoop of frozen orange juice concentrate for taste, and voilà!  Delicious, mostly nutritious smoothie.

      
And best of all, Alex approves,

 . . . most days at least. . .

If anyone ever wants any zucchini, I'm sure we will have extra, so come get it!

Happy photographing!