With our garden full of zucchini this time of year, I'm always on the lookout for a new way to serve it to our family.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.   

Ingredients:

1 large Zucchini finely grated

     (skin washed and unpeeled)

1/2 cup Kraft shredded Italian 5 cheese blend
8 oz. Progresso Panko bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 small sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 egg
a dash of salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 Tbls. olive oil

Directions:

     Using a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, except olive oil, thoroughly. Using the palm of your hand or a large spoon form the mixture into patties.  Place patties on a sheet of wax paper until you are ready to cook them.

     Pour olive oil into a pan and heat to medium high. When olive oil has reached cooking temperature, add patties to oil, and cook until golden brown. Around 3 minutes per side. Serve while hot and enjoy.

Recipe makes approx. 8 - 10, 3" dia. cakes

***Note:  Panko crumbs are very crunchy bread crumbs made from Japanese wheat bread, which is slowly dried and then shredded into crispy, jagged flakes.

Progresso Foods and Recipes

Kraft Foods and Recipes

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     Prized as both a vegetable and medicine, asparagus has been around since early times, due to its light and savory flavor and diuretic properties. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans cultivated asparagus and ate it fresh when in season and dried it for winter storage and use. The stately stalk is pictured on an Egyptian frieze dating to 3000 BC, as well as more modern works.  There is a recipe for cooking asparagus written in the oldest surviving book of recipes dating to the third century AD. The King of France, Louis XIV enjoyed it so much he ordered special greenhouses be built for growing it. Some time around the Middle Ages its popularity waned, but later reemerged as a favorite in the seventeenth century.

Asparagus is low in calories, a source of potassium, and its stalks are high in antioxidants.  It is also a very good source of dietary fiber, potassium, calcium, protein, vitamins A,B,C,E, & K, and a host of minerals that help maintain the our bodies. 

 Green asparagus is eaten worldwide.  A good source of vitamin C which helps the body produce and maintain collagen.  It also acts as a diuretic, and protects small blood vessels from rupturing. Its fiber content makes it a laxative, too.

Purple asparagus differs from its green and white counterparts, having high sugar and low fibre levels. It was originally developed in Italy. Since then, breeding work has continued in countries such as the United States and New Zealand.
White asparagus nicknamed "White Gold" in northern Europe, is not as bitter as the green variety and its color occurs because the plants are denied light while growing. White is a very popular in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Germany.  Annually, nearly 2/3 of the consumer demand is produced in this region. 
     Once planted, asparagus returns each year and will be ready to harvest and enjoy usually by the third season.  Planting tomatoes next to your asparagus helps to repel the asparagus beetle in your garden.  A well cared for asparagus planting will generally produce for about 15 years without being replanted.

Asparagus is truly a worldly dish whether it comes to the table as an appetizer or vegetable side dish.  The French often steam or boil their spears and top them with the likes of hollandaise sauce, butter, olive oil and Parmesan cheese.  Asian-style recipes call for stir frying cut up stalks and serving over rice or Cantonese style adding beef, shrimp or chicken to the dish.  A versatile ingredient, it is delicious in soups and stews, grilled, and even tossed raw in salads.  Fresh asparagus from the garden can be marinated and pickled, for enjoyment during the winter months.

     The crop is significant enough financially that is is celebrated around the world.  Asparagus Festivals are held every year in Stockton, CA, and Hart, Michigan, where they also have a parade and asparagus queen.  Northern Europe's largest producer in Worcestershire holds a week-long event in conjunction with the British Asparagus Festival every year involving auctions of the best crop and locals dressing up as spears of asparagus. The festival held in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg for a week in April honors the locally produced white asparagus.

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Some of the bounty from our Garden last Summer. 

Above pic:  Muskmellon, Summer Squash, Tomatoes, and Zuchinni. 

Below pic:  Eggplant, Bush Green Beans, and more Tomatoes.

Harvested, but not shown were Cucumbers, Pumpkins, Head lettuce, and Cabbage.  The 25' x 25' plot we put in, proved to be just the right size to grow enough for our late Summer meals, fill a third of our freezer for winter consumption, and still give away plenty to our neighbors, without overwhelming us with maintenance.  We've already been looking at the Burpee Catalogue for new items to try this year.

 

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            We spent the better part of April tilling, weeding, and planting our garden this year.  Included in the process was deciding what we would plant.  Each year we like to add a couple of new items that we've never attempted to grow before, and to do that we have say goodbye to a couple veggies from last year to make room.  Again this year we have planted 3 favorites:  Zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers, though the tomatoes will be yellow instead of red, and the Bell peppers gave way to Banana and Hot Chile's.  Our newest garden varieties include spinach, green and yellow wax beans, radishes, and turnips, which means we bid a fond farewell to last years producers:  yellow squash, eggplant, head lettuce, and cabbage, pumpkins, and cantaloupe.  Luckily the Strawberries planted last year, came back up stronger than ever and have already started producing red ripe fruit for the picking and plenty more berries ready to turn.  Pies and shortcake won't be far off.  Funny thing about the berries, is that the we were warned that once ripe, the birds would be the biggest challenge to harvesting them, but I've found that our Beagle loves to eat those berries that stick through the fence,

and she by far is that

biggest threat to our crop.

            Since the both of us are still learning with every new crop we try, I would have to say last years garden taught us alot about vegetables that vine out across the garden floor.  Since we only have a 20' x 20' plot, 3 vining plants totally overwhelmed our garden.  Weeding became impossible.  Hence the change to primarily plants that climb upwards, given one exception, our favorite zucchini.   Now that everything we've planted this year has risen above the soil by anywhere from 5" to 12", the decision to cut back on the number of crops, and improve spacing, was a change for the better. 

Maintenance and weeding is still not the fun part of gardening, (maybe the therapeutic part), but at least it will be a whole lot easier this year.  To all of you other suburban and urban farmers out there, we wish you a bumper crop, and please share anything you can spare with your local food pantry, so that others don't have to go hungry.

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Well its that time of year again.  The snow shovels have gone to the basement, along with the boots and sidewalk salt.  Spring is here, the rain is abundant, thick patches of grass inching skyward, the morning air filled with the sweet sing-songs of the Robins, Cardinals, and the like.  Mother Nature is tapping on her wrist watch, letting me know the hour has come to turn the soil and sow the seeds.  This year with her cooperation, my fellow and I will painstakingly once again plant our hardy favorites: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Zucchini and Green Beans.  For reasons of both curiosity and variety, we will add Radishes, Turnips, Spinach, and Wax Beans to the garden as well, and fore go the Eggplant, Melons, Pumpkins and Yellow Squash as a trade off from last years harvest. 

Little did we know four years ago when we started with a little 4' x 8' patch, which has now grown to a 25' x 25' fenced area, that our freezer would not be the only thing to benefit from our efforts.  Neighbors have enjoyed being gifted with some of the more unique vegetables we were fortunate enough to have success with; such as Eggplant, Acorn Squash, Zucchini and Collard Greens.  Personally, I think my mate and I enjoy a special bond when we garden, for communication is a must, if you truly expect to harvest something more than ill will, and besides your just to tired to not get along after a full day in the sun picking weeds on your hands and knees while dodging bees.  Well, I hear her tapping on her watch again.  Off I go, laden with shovel, seeds, and plenty of manure, anxious to get this garden party started.

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