Zucchini Blossom



Zucchini
This really should be titled “Reflections on a Gift of Zucchini”, recalling the title of a popular 1960’s book of poetry. You see, deep in our garden beds the plants are springing into flower, and among the first really showy vegetable blooms are the zucchini blossoms. The deep orange contrasts nicely with the dark green of the plant, and I love doing macro photography detailing the features of these plants.
I guess I’ve always been partial to zucchini as a species, as for almost 50 years I’ve been growing them – and they’ve been part of my summer all that time. I’ve grown enough of them in years such as in my teens, when I’d drive half ton pickup trucks full of them to the local farmer’s market, and make some spending money. We have hundreds of recipes for them in our family, and so, the beginning of the prolific plants making the zucchini is a welcome sight.
Traditions like growing a garden, when you don’t really have to, are things that bring pleasure to many, and I love having some veggies around, while Norma grows a larger and beautiful flower garden. We love working outside and it’s just part of the nature of living in the country. It helps bind us to our land, and we get to watch nature, and especially the creatures who co-inhabit our little piece of this planet.
We do have one small issue with some of the creatures - this year, we’ll have fewer zucchini as I had just thinned the plants to three larger seedlings to nurture in my smaller bed, when the next night a rabbit ate one – so instead of three large plants, we’ll only have two. Norma and I will still have enough for our use, just not as many to give away.
That reminds me of the old story about visiting folks living in the country in the Maritimes or New England in the late summer - one must make sure to lock your car doors. If you don’t you’ll go to drive away, and your car will be full of zucchini your host wishes to give away!
We probably won’t hit that level of production this year, but, you might not want to chance it!