Squash!

Okay, so even though no one responded to my stupid question of the day to help me identify what the heck kind of squash I'm growing, in my garden, I'm not bitter!  I harvested the first of the mystery squash yesterday, along with some more hot peppers and my very sad, pathetic attempt at beets:

You can sort of make out the tiny, stunted beet at the end of one of the plants.  The other one doesn't have any beet at all (like me - ha ha - you know, cause I'm white - sigh).  I will probably just use the greens in a saute.  I have planted some more recent beet seeds in pot - they have started to sprout, so I will see if I have more luck with them.

Anyway, I made a stuffed squash dish last night by cutting the squash in half, steaming it for a few minutes, making a stuffing out of the squash innards, bread crumbs, herbs, Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, garlic, etc.  Then stuffing the squash halves and baking them in the oven for about 25 minutes.  Frankly, it wasn't a huge hit.  A little bland.  I need to find some more interesting recipes.

Today, I harvested three more of the squash:

And, after running some searches on line for different recipes, decided to make some squash bread.

First, I cut the squash in half and steamed it in the microwave:

Then scooped out the squash, mashed it and mixed with the batter:

Added flour, kneaded it, and then covered it and let it sit for a while:

After it sat for a couple of hours, I kneaded it some more, and divided it into two portions.  The first, I formed into a loaf and put in a baking tin:

I covered that and let it sit for another hour or so to rise some more:

The other portion, I just put back in the bowl to sit for a while.  I ended up freezing that to bake another time:

I baked the first batch for about 35 minutes and put it on a rack to cool:

It looks really good.  After it cooled a little, we cut a piece off the end and ate it with a little butter.  Honestly, we were both like - meh.  It's okay.  It's always nice to have fresh warm bread.  But it doesn't have a ton of flavor.  It's sort of just okay.

I really need to figure out some better recipes for this squash, because there are a lot of them on that plant.

I even took the trouble to clean off all the squash seeds and roast them with olive oil and salt in the oven. 

And, although I thought they were fine, the Moth wasn't not particularly taken with those either.

I think the lesson is - you can't just walk into a nursery and buy any old veggie plant, thinking it's going to taste fine.  If I'm going to devote the limited space to my garden to a huge squash plant, it better be an awesome squash.  Plus, I need better recipes.

Vegetable Plot Progress

I thought it was about time to show the progress of my little veggie plot.  I started preparing the plot back in early March, by marking out a 3 foot by 6 foot space on the sunniest side of my house with a spade.
 

I covered the sod with newspaper, watered it, and covered that with layers of dead leaves, compost, soil and manure.  Then I covered all that with black plastic and let it bake for several weeks.

When it began getting warm near the end of May, I decided it was time to start transplanting.  I started by planting with tomatoes (which I had been growing from seeds inside) along the back row.  In front of those, I put a variety of peppers (both hot and sweet) and some basil and parsley.  Here is how it looked after the initial planting.  There is also a pot of greens (lettuce and swiss chard) next to it, which I later moved to a shadier side of the house:

The Veggie Plot on May 23, 2012

Well my poor little veggie plot was inundated with insects, so I read everything I could find on-line and in my gardening books about how to control them organically.  As a result, I learned that interplanting marigolds, geraniums, onions, and certain herbs - such as sage and mint - can deter insects, so I did that.  I added a pot of geraniums on one side and a pot of mint on the other.

Around this time, I also planted a little zucchini plant on the front right corner of the plot:

The Veggie Plot on June 4, 2012

And a little summer squash plant on the front left corner of the plot:

Please make a note of how close the squash plant on the left front corner
is to the white geranium and the yellow marigold ...

 I had quite a few left over tomato plants, so I decided to put those in pots next to the veggie plot, along with a little pot of chives and some parsley:

Tomato plants in pots

Eventually, however, I knew the tomatoes would outgrow those small pots.  But I didn't want to spend a lot of money on large pots.  Then I came up with an idea.  These buckets cost about $2.98 at Home Depot:

Meet Homer

I had bought a couple of them previously to use for various gardening and household tasks.

So, I bought a few more:

Drilled some holes in the bottom:

Instant Tomato Pot!

I spent a weekend transplanting tomatoes into my new Homer Pots:

Tomato Pot Alley, on June 10, 2012

Here is the Veggie plot that same day - I mulched it with some dried leaves:

Veggie Plot - June 10, 2012

Hmm . . . squash plant getting a bit bigger ....

 I took a photo of my first hot peppers that day:

A green one

And a little tiny purple one - supposed to be very hot!

The tomato vines were starting to grow longer, so I started tying them to the bamboo posts with twine:

Also, on June 10, I had a little tiny harvest of greens:

Which I made into a tiny salad for dinner:

So Tiny ...

We had the salad for dinner, along with chicken stir fry made with some fresh herbs from the garden

Here is the Veggie garden, on June 13, just a few days later:

The next big events occurred on or about June 30:

OMG!!!!!  Tomatoes!!!!!

OMG!  The Veggie Plot!

It Lives!!!!!

Pretty blooms on the (now gigantic) squash plant:

The poor white geranium has no chance ....

 More hot peppers (pepper shown in previous photo has now been eaten):

And here is tomato pot row on June 30:

The following day, we had another harvest:

Bunch of cilantro, parsley and other herbs, and a hot pepper

I made some scallion-cilantro sauce, which I've been using to marinate chicken:

I also made some cilantro-lime dressing, which I've used for stir fry, salad dressing, and to make some spicy cilantro scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning:

I also made some fresh salsa:

Finally, a few photos from the garden today:

That little squash plant and that little zucchini plant have taken over,
and the tomatoes are reaching the tops of their bamboo stakes

Some beets I planted from seeds several weeks ago

Tomatoes

Close-up of squash plant

Another tiny purple pepper

More hot green peppers

I am also overrun with basil, so this weekend I will be making pesto sauce and freezing it for future use.

So, just to summarize -

Before:

And After: