From the little garden in Wichita, Kansas…

From A to Zucchini!
Start with an Annual planting of zucchini seeds… Zucchini seeds sprout quickly and can be easily transplanted outdoors when all chance of frost has passed. Then start the process of watering, fertilizing, and weeding to keep the zucchinis healthy and strong.
 

 
When a plant is strong, it is less susceptible to disease and attack by destructive insects. Unfortunately, we’ve been hit by a couple of hail storms and the zucchinis took quite a beating cutting through the leaves and breaking the plants down. We weren’t sure how they would do, but the force to live is strong and the plants just produced more fresh, strong leaves.
 

 
Then, when strong enough, the plant starts flowering…
 

 
I started getting excited with anticipation of zucchinis to come… I’d go check them when I’d get home from work! Ooooo… I couldn’t wait! Then I saw it… 
 

 
The much anticipated fruit was… shrivelling! How could this be?! I was pretty upset… I went online and learned more about zucchinis than I could have imagined…
 
I learned that there are male flowers and female flowers on the zucchini plant. This is a male flower; it has the flower on a long, skinny stalk:
 

 
This is a female flower on the zucchini. Notice its fruit is directly behind the flower…
 

 
What I also discovered is that if the female flower —> fruit doesn’t get fertilized when young, it begins to shrivel, such as in the example I showed initially. So how do I ensure that the male flowers fertilize the female flowers on the zucchini?
Nature has relied for eons on bees; they come out early in the morning when the flowers are open and move the pollen from the male stamen of the flower to the female flower. And, if there aren’t enough bees doing the work, you can fertilize by hand. To do so, take a male flower and pull back the flower leaving the stamen sticking out. Then gently rub the inside part of the female flower to pollinate it. Once pollinated, the ‘beginner’ fruit will continue developing until it reaches a size worthy of picking—and the end won’t be shriveled. Instead, it’ll look full and healthy—ready for picking…
 

 
Zucchinis are typically good producers… Here’s one morning’s picking…
 

 
It’s easy to let some zucchinis grow too large. You must be on the watch like a hawk, ever vigilant, or else you’ll be making baked zucchini boats or shredding it for muffins and the like. Last Saturday I tried my hand at making zucchini chips by shredding them into chip size to start and then placing them on my dehydrator to transform them into dry ‘chips.’
 

 
To make zucchini boats, I did the following…
 
Slice a large zucchini in half and scoop out the soft seed area; then chop the scooped portion into small bits in a mixing bowl.
 
Add dried breadcrumbs, minced garlic, and a good parmesan cheese. You may also season it with an herb such as dill weed.
 
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until tender.
 
Serve immediately.
 
Bon appetit!

Jane, my partner, has stayed behind in Kansas. She has a son to finish raising. He is that wonderful age of 16. He will be a Junior, grade 11 this August.  Her primary job, even more important than this blog work is to raise him to the highest of his good.

And a wonderful job she is doing.  My involvement is teaching him some golf, some jokes(to tell in the bathroom, and at lunch) and to show him some build it/fix it skills.

I am now in the ‘thumb’ of Michigan, in the US.  On the map you can see that this state looks like a mitten and we are in the ‘thumb’!  If you look closely you’ll see the town of Bad Axe(seems like something they would have in Australia or New Zealand!) but it is just west of the town of Rapson!  Yep, named after old dead relatives of mine!

I hope you all are enjoying this blogging process and if there are any questions on anything you read or don’t and just have questions, I promise I will make a strong attempt at answering your questions. 

I am dan playsinthe dirt rapson on Facebook and my email is d_rapson@yahoodotcom.  I hope you all are staying hydrated and keeping cool(Except for the friends downunder-keep warm and dry!) 

Be well; peace….dan