Bye Bye Garden

Over the last two months we have witnessed the demise of our garden. The extreme heat and draught were definitely challenges this summer. However, we still managed to have a full supply of veggies through August. The squash and zucchini finally bit the dust about August 20 which left us a few puny tomato plants and our okra.

Okra is amazing (not so much amazing tasting, but amazing in what a hardy plant it is...) Our okra is still producing, although I anticipate it will be done in the next week. Due to the fruitfulness of our okra, I do not want to eat okra until next year!

Overall our inaugural gardening experience was a huge success and I definitely learned how to improve for next year. Primary lessons learned include:
-Plant the bell peppers behind a tomato plant so they get a little bit of shade. With the direct sun the bell peppers burn before they are ready to pick. :(
-Plant the tomato plants a little further apart, they get really big.
-Hand in hand with this, we must stake the tomato cages on all sides because we get wind from every which way on our property and were continually picking up tomato plants.
-Do not plant moose neck squash. Half the yield was hard gourd type warty squash. Summer squash was MUCH better.
-Plant more red potatoes. By far the easiest thing to grow!

And here's my last big batch of okra....slimy goodness! MMM....

Let me Count thy Ways

...to cook squash. Squash is like a weed. You can pick it on Monday and in just a few short days you have MORE squash! I previously mentioned the many ways I have prepared squash, but included some photos today.

Stuffed Squash:
1. Boil the whole squash for ~ 30 minutes (until you can somewhat easily puncture the skin with a knife)
2. Let squash cool
3. After the squash cools, cut each one in half (I used 4 squash)
4. Use a grapefruit spoon to clean out seeds/middle part

Stuffing:
1. Follow directions to prepare 1 box of Jiffy cornbread. (I used the cornbread mix, skim milk, 1 egg and cooked in an 8x8 pan so it was a bit thin.)
2. Begin a saute with 3/4 stick of butter, diced green onion (fresh from the garden) and celery (which I was out of so I used green banana pepper from the garden) I think bell pepper would be really good, but ours were too small to pick yesterday
3. Add parsley to the simmer with the butter, onion, and pepper (or celery)
4. Break up 1/2 the pan of cornbread with your hands in a mixing bowl
5. Pour in the saute mix and knead together
6. Add Cayenne pepper or red pepper (I added a bit too much red pepper for my taste, but Derek liked it)



Final:
1. Stuff the cornbread stuffing mix into each squash (Note: I added a little bit of the squash seeds, about 2 spoon fulls, to the stuffing mix to make it a bit more moist as well as another quarter of the pan of cornbread)
2. Option: lightly salt the entire squash once they are stuffed
3. Place in the oven for ~ 13 minutes at 300 degrees before you serve