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Sunday, August 08, 2010

Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day!

If you have a garden and grow zucchini you'll find this funny.  I don't grow zucchini, but I have the same problem with a surplus of cucumbers.  One of our neighbors joked that August was the only time of year you need to lock your car in New Hampshire - to prevent those with zucchini crops from throwing their extra zucchini into your unlocked car.  I actually did just flag down two separate neighbors who were driving down my street, and forced a fresh-picked cucumber in each of their respective driver's side windows.


"When : August 8th 

Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day . Now that's nasty! But hey, what are you going to do with an endless supply of zucchini fruit? 

Experienced gardener's know that Zucchini is one of the most prolific plants in all of the gardening world. A single plant produces a seemingly endless supply of Zucchini. A small row of zucchini has the potential to end world hunger. 

By the time August arrives, gardeners are reaping far more zucchini than they can possibly use. They use it daily in an untold number of recipes, from soups and stews, to breads and dips. Still, the fruit matures on the vine faster than anyone can even pick it. Zucchini growers become desperate, as they try to give zucchini away to family, friends and everyone they encounter. By August, even non-gardeners have had enough. Everyone avoids you, with your arms laden with giveaway fruit. 

Desperate times calls for desperate measure. It's time to sneak over, under the cover of darkness, to your neighbors porch, and unload some zucchini. Today is that day. This may solve your problem for today. But, what will you do with the harvest tomorrow!?!"

-KD

14 comments:

rjs said...

just put it all on a small table on the side of the road with a "free to good home" sign on it; someone always takes it...

Kid Dynamite said...

yep - a neighbor did just that. it actually gave me the idea to start a local give one - take one co-op kinda thing where everyone drops their surpluses...

RJS - i think i have tomato blight... my plants are big and beautiful, with lots of not-yet-red tomatoes (although many of them seem to be near full sized - and I have harvested a handful of ripe ones) - but the bottom many layers of leaves got yellow/brown spots and withered and died... I had already removed any leaves touching the ground, but this still happened... what does it mean for the future of my plants? the plants are certainly alive, but i'm a little surprised that the tomatoes don't seem to be ripening...

rjs said...

a lot of virus & fungi can cause spots on the leaves, some dont cost you much...if you have late blight, your green tomatoes will start to turn brown...
its typically a malady of cool damp summers...temperatures over 80 for a few days will stop late blight...

in ohio, the tomatoes are just starting to turn...typically your heavy crops will be sept...

late blight:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=late+blight+tomatoes&rlz=1R2ADFA_enUS372&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

Kid Dynamite said...

RJS - the good news is that i don't THINK i have that... maybe i don't have blight at all - it could be just that my lower leaves are dying (turning yellow with brown spots, then shriveling up) because they don't get sun and because my plants are too close together... i'll hope so...

rjs said...

here you go:

Market diseases of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants (Agriculture handbook / United States Department of Agriculture)

(96 pp to keep you busy)

http://bit.ly/bX2il7

rjs said...

http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/a/TomatoProblems.htm

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/leaf/

if you have blight, there's still a lot of warm weather in august to slow it down & minimize damage

rjs said...

also common, not usually serious:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3122.html

the best way to deal with most of these is to harvest as soon as fruit tints, & ripen indoors...

Kid Dynamite said...

it could DEFINITELY be fusarium wilt - or septoria leaf spot.

rjs said...

fusarium is also on p22 of the USDA handbook...i dont think septoria is serious...

rjs said...

one more thought; yellowing of lower leaves can be caused by both overwatering, esp in heavy soils, and underwatering - actually , any physiological stress when plants are mature can cause lower leaves to drop...

Dynamite-in-law, Esq. said...

I was visiting my parents (the Dynamite in-laws) this weekend, and I went home with a big bag full of cucumbers and zucchini that they were given by their neighbor.

I wonder how many levels deep the vegetable giving goes. Is there a Keynesian multiplier?

Kid Dynamite said...

yeah - the cucumber/zucchini multiplier has the same problem as the current Keynesian multiplier - it keeps getting smaller, so that eventually you won't have any cucumbers to give 5th hand to YOUR neighbors!

did they give you any of the pickles? or at least share them with you?

Dynamite-in-law, Esq. said...

I strenuously object! I did not receive any pickles.

re: Keynesian multipliers

What if the Fed uses a helicopter to drop zucchini over malnourished urban centers?

Kid Dynamite said...

re: zucchini drop: LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: massive medical bills for treatment from blunt zucchini trauma related injuries