Garden Eats – Tales of how our garden’s produce makes its way to the kitchen table

These last few weeks have just blown by me! I went to a week-long workshop called “the Mind of Mentoring” up north of Santa Cruz, and now we’re already well into September! Over Labor Day weekend, my brother and his family came to visit us. There were two enormous zucchinis in the garden, so we decided to stuff them for dinner one night (my nephew Caleb is in the picture above).

I think this could easily go vegetarian by dropping the meat and just leaving the rice- or you could substitute couscous or quinoa for the rice for a different twist. You could also add in other vegetables – kale, chard, sauteed carrots or eggplant? Lots of room for experimentation!

On another note – remember the last watermelon we picked that was completely not ripe yet? Well – this weekend I checked the watermelon that had been growing, and it had a hole in the side and was bubbling… it was so overripe that it was fermenting in the hot sun! Needless to say- not edible. But right after I cut that one off the plant, a new one has started growing.. so maybe this time we’ll get it right! We also harvested a few honeylopes that are delicious. I had saved the seeds from one I bought at the market last year, so these melons came from those seeds. They’re quite a bit smaller, but still tasted great!

Stuffed Zucchini
2 really large zucchini (ours were 2 and 3 lbs)
1 lb mixture ground beef, pork, or turkey
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 can stewed tomatoes (or 1-2 cups tomatoes chopped and sauteed with the meat/onions)
2-3 cups rice, cooked
Handful oregano, thyme
~3/4 cup cheese – we used garlic jack and cheddar

Heat oven to 375. Slice zucchini in half length-wise, scoop out seeds. Put on baking sheet and bake for ~20 minutes or so. Saute ground meat mixture and onion, and drain out any excess oil. Add in tomatoes, cut into pieces, and heat up a bit. Combine in a large bowl with the rice, herbs, and cheese. Spoon into the zucchinis, and grate some extra cheese on top. Bake for another 10-15 minutes, until heated through and cheese is bubbly.