Zucchini, the Bear, and My Garden

My vegetable garden did miserably this year; so did my apple trees. If I was a pioneer and had to live off of the fruits of my labor, my family would starve this winter. I’m not sure what happened. I tried some different veggies this year, broccoli and cauliflower. You would think with broccoli and cauliflower being cool weather crops, they would have done better. All I got were pea sized heads. What a disappointment. Even my tomatoes did lousy this year. I called my local garden center and was told that I may have planted too late. Okay, these are the same guys that tell me not to plant if I see snow on the Swans. Well, now I’m stumped. I’ve been planting gardens here for six summers now and I still don’t have the hang of it.

Obviously, the woman who defended herself from a 200 lb black bear with a zucchini had a decent crop, at least of zucchini anyway. She lives in Frenchtown, Montana and made the national news when she threw a 14 inch long zucchini at a black bear and hit it in its head as it was about to enter her kitchen door. She had the encounter with the bear when she discovered it was attacking her dog. She kicked the bear in the throat. That’s when the bear turned its attention to her. She ran inside, grabbed the zucchini off of the counter and threw it at the bear. It was an excellent deterrent. The bear retreated and hasn’t been seen since.

Yep, it’s bear time again and people are sighting them everywhere. There was one roaming near the park where Mallory and E have cross-country track. You just never know where they are going to show up at this time of year. They come into town for the fruit trees to fatten themselves up for winter. As much as I thought I’d learned about bears since moving here, I just found out that grizzlies don’t start hibernating until the first of December. I had thought they were all denned up by November.

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for.  TEN Fun Facts on Zucchini that I got from the Food Channel!

  1. One zucchini has 25 calories compared to a baked potato that has 130.
  2. The flower of the zucchini plant is also edible.
  3. The world’s largest zucchini was 69 1/2 inches long and weighed 65 lbs.
  4. A soap bar called Fresh Zucchini Flower Big Bar Goat’s Milk Soap is made with real zucchini. (I should hope so, with a name like that)
  5. The Zucchini Brothers are a band from Saratoga, NY and they perform songs for young kids. (not as good a name as Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles, but…)
  6. A zucchini has more potassium than a banana. (but it doesn’t taste as good in your cornflakes)
  7. The word zucchini comes from the word “zucca”, the Italian word for squash.
  8. There is an annual Zucchini Fest in Obetz, Ohio. It’s a 3-day fest which claims to be “everything zucchini”.  (must get kind of boring there, like Bigfork in winter where they hold the Spam-O-Rama)
  9. BIGGER is not better.  The most flavorful zucchinis are small to medium sized.
  10. And last but not least, zucchinis are good for you!

Thank for stopping by y’all!

Till next time,

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