Mama of Ma'at: The summer of zucchini

This year's garden was wholly my effort, with some planting help from the kids. It was a quick effort because doing things with two kids running around and making demands isn't easy.

In some ways it's one of our best gardens. I used Green Mountain Coffee burlap coffee bean bags as mulch (you can get them for free at their factories). Therefore, for once, the weeds are actually under control.

Then again, not all of the space we typically use was planted. Also many of our seeds were old eg. the sweet peas didn't do much of anything. We picked maybe two dozen of them to eat as impromptu snacks.

This year I planted cilantro which grew quickly from seed and tastes delicious. It's a nice addition. There's basil too, also from seed, but it's getting shaded out by the tomatoes, whoops.

We've had a decent crop of tomatoes so far. Here is the latest collection sitting on my window to fully ripen.

I have shied away from planting zucchini in the past because I know what a monster it is. Zucchinis typically take over gardens and your neighbor then tries to pawn two foot-long giant vegetables off on you.

From FB:

This year I went for it anyway. I planted a few seeds and I think I have three plants now. It's hard to tell because they are so sprawling and prickly! I don't like touching them.

The zucchinis themselves are sneaky little buggers, hiding among the prickly stalks disguising their full-size.

Do you see the two zucchinis in this picture?

So when you have prolific zucchini plants what do you do? Zucchini bread of course!

I have documented all my garden firsts on this blog so here is the latest. This morning I made zucchini muffins. The kids were playing happily and independently for most of the time while I grated the zucchini and mixed the dry and wet ingredients separately...