Zucchini-palooza! part 2

After the zucchini bread, I wanted to cook a main dish. I was thinking of just adding the zuke to a lasagna recipe since we already had all the ingredients to make that in the cupboard.

Before starting to cook, I took a quick zip around the internet and I’m glad I did. Thanks to this recipe on The Italian Dish, I discovered that you can use zucchini in the place of noodles in lasagna!  My variation on her recipe is below. I’m not much for measuring when it comes to cooking, so use your best judgement for how much to use.

Spinach Zucchini Lasagna
adapted from The Italian Dish

1 monstrous zucchini
1 jar tomato sauce (or homemade tomato sauce once the tomatoes come in)
1 bag/box frozen spinach
Bread crumbs
8 ounces ricotta cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
handful of fresh basil, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
Mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated (around half of a bag or thin slices of fresh)

Slice zucchini into long, thin slices (like lasagna noodles). Cook in boiling water just until limp, about 5 minutes, then drain.

Dethaw the spinach and squeeze most of the water out of it. Mix together the eggs, ricotta, spinach, salt, pepper, basil, and parsley.

Layer like you make lasagna: start with tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish, sprinkle some bread crumbs on top, lay out zucchini slices, cover with spinach ricotta mixture, sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan, then more tomato sauce, etc…  On the very top I finished with some more breadcrumbs and cheese.

Results:
Amazing! I don’t think I’ll ever use pasta again in lasagna! I’m wondering how many times I can make this without getting sick of it. I can’t imagine it happening.

Zucchini-palooza! part 1

So after the past few work sessions and veggie calls, I have ended up with several monstrous zucchinis and not much appetite for sauteed or roasted zukes as a side dish. I’ve tried a couple recipes so far and I’ll post them here

Zucchini Bread / Muffins
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

fter searching around the internet, I found a recipe for zucchini bread on Smitten Kitchen that looked healthy, well-tested, and open to interpretation. I think I made enough variations on the recipe that I can reproduce my version here:

Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins

3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans (or nut of choice)
1 cup dried raisins  (or dried fruit of choice)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, liberally. Alternately, line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil, apple sauce, and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as raisins. Stir this into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.

And the results….

These were delicious and not too sweet. A co-worker suggested adding allspice and maple syrup the next time. Since I think I’ll be making this a few more times this summer, I plan on a couple variations: adding some shredded coconut, replacing the rest of the oil with yogurt (I already replaced half of it with apple sauce in the recipe above), trying chocolate chips…

Spring harvest and summer planting

This evening we met up in the garden for a quick meeting and to plant the seedlings everyone has been raising at home. To clear out some beds for the summer planting, we harvested all of the spinach and lettuce, and some of the swiss chard. The peas, carrots, beets, and kohlrabi have a week or so more until they are ready to harvest.

Thanks to our members’ green thumbs, we had lots of seedlings to plant.  In total, we planted 8 cucumber plants, 51 tomatoes, 18 eggplants, 34 peppers, and 11 squash — almost all of our Summer planting!!   We’ll have a little more to do later once the rest of the Spring veggies come out.

Spring work sessions

Based on our poll results, the work session schedule for the Spring is as follows

Tuesdays 6-8 pm
Thursdays 9-11 am
Sundays 5-7 pm

We’ll adjust this schedule once the days get longer, it gets hotter, and/or people need to change it.

Based on the garden rules, each gardener must come to two sessions a month. You do not have to commit to a specific session, just come when you can. There is a team leader who (generally) commits to be at each work session.  That said, sometimes people travel or get tied up. Therefore, we keep a notebook in the shed and each shift notes what they did, what’s come up, what’s been harvested, any problems (pests, wash outs, etc) and what needs to happen next. That way we can be self-sufficient if we end up there on our own once in a while.

Spring update

Prepping the beds

Spring gardening has begun! Today was the first of two work parties to clean up the garden and get Spring vegetables in the ground.  Today we weeded, tilled the beds, and worked in the cover crops that were planted in the fall. We also built a trellis for the peas and planted peas, lettuce, spinach, carrots, and beets.

Our second work session is next Saturday, March 19 from 9-12.  We’ll be finishing up the planting and doing any other work that is left.

Summer Harvest Success!

Some Gardeners, the Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members

Even though things have been quiet on the web site, things have not been quiet in the garden.  Despite not-so-good soil, a drought, and record heat, the GW Community Garden had a successful first season. Tonight we celebrated with an end-of-season harvest party attended by gardeners, friends, and family.

All (well, most) of the food prepared was made with ingredients from the garden, so we had several tomato & basil dishes, gazpacho, vegetable couscous (with lots of peppers), several eggplant dishes, cucumber dip, watermelon, and some other goodies that I can’t remember.

Our next group event will be a work party in September or October where we will prep the beds for the fall, add some compost, and plant a cover crop.

Most dishes were prepared with veggies from the garden

Updated member email list

Hey GW Community Garden Members – Do you need to get in contact with another garden member, but you can’t remember her name? Now you can check the current membership list for names, emails, and phone numbers.

If you need to send an email to the group, look at the bottom of the membership list for an “emails-only” list that you can cut and paste into your email – it couldn’t be easier!

This area is password protected, so if you don’t remember the password, please email me at halliewilfert at gmail.com

Work Session Update and What to Plant

The newly formed beds and the landscaping fabric marking the paths.

We will have our last spring prep work shift this Saturday, April 17 from 8-11 am. We will be spreading wood chips onto the pathways and planting as much as possible.

If you couldn’t make it last weekend, here’s your chance! Please remember that every member must attend one spring prep and one fall clean-up work session (according to garden rules). These are big jobs, and we need everyone to chip in to make this project a success.

Last weekend we had great turn-out. On Saturday, we prepped the soil, spread lots of mulch, and staked out the beds. On Sunday, we created the beds and the bed rows, created paths in between the beds, and planted our first seeds.

There's a job for everyone!

With the recent warm weather, we’re not sure how the spring crops will do, but we planted radishes, lettuce, and carrots and we have our fingers crossed.

On Monday, Samantha and crew came and planted strawberry and blueberry plants.

Speaking of planting, Denise, one of our awesome master gardeners, just send the following information along:

As we are still in the prep stage of our community garden, it’s  a fine time to think about what we would like to plant.  Think about what your family would love to taste from our garden and together we can plant some juicy delicious veggies, herbs, and fruits.  It is always an experience to try a few new tastes, but sometimes  the classics just can’t be beat.

As you figure out what you want to plant –there are many many wonderful sites to look up plants, get questions answered, and do a little “digging” on your own before we actually start planting.  Visit www.ext.vt.edu and click on publications resources for a huge amount of info.  Also extension.umd.edu has great info.  As you search sites, remember that any site that contains “extension”  and edu in the address  is a state extension website.  There are also some fun ones such as davesgarden.com.

First work session success!

Spreading the mulch

We had a gorgeous day for our first work session! Twelve members arrived ready to work and together we accomplished a number of tasks.

First, we picked up any broken glass and other debris that we found in the soil that had been turned. No antiques found, but we did unearth an old bouncy ball and a spackle knife. Next, we moved mulch from a giant pile on the lawn to across the garden and spread it on the top of the top soil.

After that, we stapled down the landscape fabric on the pathways to keep the weeds down. Finally, we staked out the garden plots to match the master gardeners’ design.

Staking out the plots

Today we have another work session from 9-11 and we plan on mounding soil up in the plots, mapping out more pathways, and planting our first seeds!

Upcoming Work Sessions: April 10, 11, 17

The master gardeners met at the garden yesterday afternoon to decide what needs to be done this weekend -  and there’s a lot to be done! We’ve scheduled three upcoming work sessions to get us going – - more information is below.

Every member needs to attend at least one of the 3 spring prep sessions and it would be great if you could come to more.

Since we do not have tools yet, each member should bring any/all of the following to the work sessions:

• Iron Rake
• Shovel
• Wheelbarrow
• Pick
• Gloves
• Water to drink
• Boots (the soil is deep and very soft!)

Work Session Details:

Saturday 4/10 (8 am-11 am)

Our goal is to bring leaf much from a giant pile outside the garden and distribute to garden. We will then stake out the bedding areas and mound the mulch into the beds. We will also lay out landscaping cloth over the path/border areas.

Sunday 4/11 (9 am-11 am)

We will plant the lettuce and the kitchen garden veggies. We have all the seeds

Saturday 4/17 (8 am-11 am)

Distribute wood chips (being delivered Friday 4/16) over paths and plant lots of other seeds!