Our Garden

Here is a post that will make my mother, my in-laws, and my Grandpa proud.

This spring we planted a garden. Brian is a true green thumb, and loves to garden. For the first time in our married life, we've been able to plant a garden! It's been fun.

Our next door neighbors have a huge garden plot and they said we could use three rows to plant whatever we wanted. They are in their 80's and decided they couldn't keep up with as big of a garden as they have had in the past. We turned this opportunity into an FHE event and planted tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and pumpkins.

It has been fun for Jackson to help weed and water our growing plants. He likes seeing the veggies appear and grow( especially the pumpkins...we have six huge pumpkins growing for this fall). He also likes to play in the dirt, but he's a boy, what can I say?

Our Zucchini and squash plants have been producing like crazy! We have had to throw away so much what we can't use between our two families...and I've gotten creative on using up as much as I can. I pureed the zucchini and squash and added it to some home-made spaghetti sauce, which actually turned out pretty good. I've made 16 (and counting) loaves of zucchini bread...and my neighbors love me (or hate me) for it! We've sauteed, grilled, steamed zucchini and squash for nearly every dinner. I also got a really yummy squash casserole recipe from my mom and have made it a few times. My family loves it.

We have given a lot of our veggies away to friends and to the neighborhood "share the bounty" system. It's a pretty cool idea. A neighbor built a veggie shack where people can drop off and collect anything they want for free. It's a great concept to share the different things people grow in their gardens, while also providing a way to share the surplus with others who would use it. I have hated throwing away so much good food, so we drop off our veggies at least a couple times a week. Great Idea.

Here are some pictures of the fruits of our labors...







Here is the Squash Casserole recipe, it's pretty liberal so you can change it to fit your family's tastes:

2 Zucchini
3-4 crookneck squash (small to medium size)
1 large onion
green onions or chives to taste (optional)
2 eggs
2 cups croutons or dried bread peaces (I use cheesy garlic croutons, but you can use any flavor)
1/2 stick butter plus extra for sauteing
2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus extra for topping

Pre-heat oven to 350*. Chop squash into bite size chunks and steam. Drain. Meanwhile saute onions and chives in butter until soft. Mix the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add the squash and onions. Pour into a 9x13 baking dish. Top with a little shredded cheese and seasoning of choice (I like Cajun seasoning, but Italian also works well). Bake for 30-45 minutes and serve.