Because apparently twice wasn’t enough.
There comes a point every summer when zucchini stops being something you grow and becomes something you manage.
We’ve already baked it into cake. We’ve already wondered what to do when the garden gives us far too much of it.
And still, the zucchini keeps coming.
This year, we’ve learned that sometimes the simplest solution is not another recipe.
Just pick it earlier.
Small is better
When there is really a lot of zucchini, we harvest it while it’s still small.
At this size, it’s tender, there are no big seeds to remove, no peeling, and almost nothing needs to be done to it.
Cut it lengthwise, put it on the grill — or, on an ordinary morning, simply into a hot pan with a little butter.
A few minutes on each side. A little salt.
That’s pretty much it.
There’s something satisfying about seeing them lined up like this. Different sizes, all picked before they had the chance to become the kind of zucchini that takes up half the kitchen counter.
No complicated recipe required
We usually cut the small zucchini into long pieces and let it brown gently in butter.
You want it soft enough to eat, but still with a little bite and some colour from the pan.
It works next to grilled meat, fish or almost anything else you happen to be cooking.
But lately, we’ve been eating it for breakfast too.
Eggs, a few tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden, whatever else is around — and warm zucchini straight from the pan.
Nothing planned. Nothing particularly photogenic when it started.
Just breakfast.
And nobody has to take another zucchini home
There is another advantage to picking them small.
You actually manage to eat them.
Which means you don’t have to start appearing at neighbours’ doors carrying suspiciously large zucchinis and asking:
“Would you like one?”
Because chances are, they’re standing behind their own kitchen door wondering exactly the same thing about you.
That’s August in the countryside.
Everyone has zucchini.
Maybe this is the real zucchini trick
Not freezing it.
Not finding twenty-seven new recipes.
Not secretly leaving it on someone else’s doorstep.
Just picking it while it’s small, cooking it simply and eating it as part of whatever meal happens to be next.
Sometimes the garden doesn’t need us to be more creative.
It just needs us to get there a little earlier.
Previously in our accidental zucchini series:
When the Garden Gives You Too Much Zucchini
The Cake That Disappears Faster Than the Zucchini Grows
See you in the garden. ❤️