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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 22, 2018)
2A ܂ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2018 ܂ APPEAL TRIBUNE What to do with all that zucchini Gardening Carol Savonen Guest columnist Question: Help! I’m drowning in zuc- chini! I’ve run out of ideas. I’ve made muffins, bread, and canned some relish. I’d like to just preserve young, fresh zuc- chini somehow. Any idea on how I’d do this? Answer: I grow several kinds of zuc- chini so I can sympathize. The secret to not having too much zucchini is to pick them really young...before or right after blooming. Then they are small, dense, tasty and not a burden sitting on the counter. By slicing, blanching and freezing them, you can preserve most of fresh- picked qualities of baby summer squash for winter’s soups, stews and risotto. Here’s how to do it. First, wash and slice up your small zucchini into 1/4 inch slices. Meanwhile, bring a spaghetti pot of Bathrooms Continued from Page 1A Church and Cleveland streets. The public bathrooms have been in place since at least the 1970s. They've been a problem for a long time. Mt. Angel city manager Amber Mathiesen said public works employ- ees would spend between six and 24 hours each week cleaning the bath- rooms. “We certainly had a number of in- stances where the toilets would be clogged with paper towels, sometimes articles of clothing,” Mathiesen said. Mathiesen said the Mt. Angel City Council in April approved a staff rec- ommendation to alter the public rest- rooms, and the project took place a few weeks into April. The roof and all permanent fixtures in the building were removed. Two portable bathrooms were brought in and put in the remainder of the building. “It allows for better cleaning,” Math- iesen said. “Port-a-potties are not as attractive water to a boil on the stove. Fill a large bowl or pasta pot full of ice water ready and put it in the sink. Have a colander handy. Put all the sliced zuke into boiling wa- ter for 3 minutes to blanch it. Then drain the hot sliced zuke into the colander and then plunge it into the bowl of ice water. Leave it there for 3 minutes. Drain the blanched cold squash and pour the slices out onto clean cotton kitchen towels. Roll the towels up to blot dry the squash. Then put the processed squash into containers or zip lock bags, label and freeze. Find a 20-pound behemoth zucchi- ni? Too late for freezing and blanching. They make great compost. I sometimes cook up some in the microwave and give it to my dogs with their dinner. They get to feel full and happy. And I feel satisfied that I didn’t waste food. Question: I’ve had problems growing zucchini this year. I have grown them for many years with good results. However, this year, the zucchini "squashes" do not grow as they should. I have very odd shaped zucchini with the stem side very to people hanging out in them. With the installation of the portable toilets, we’ve had no vandalism.” Each year during Oktoberfest the bathrooms were closed as Oktoberfest Inc., provides portable bathrooms for the festival. But there are many other events that bring visitors to town year-round such as group walkers, bicycle tours, motor- cycle tours and car shows. The public bathrooms are their main option. “If you come down here en masse, you have to use the facilities,” Franklin said. “There are thousands of people who come down here.” Franklin plans to present a proposal to rebuild the permanent bathroom at the Mt. Angel city council's Sept. 10 meeting, and she says she has support from dozens of fellow Mt. Angel citi- zens. “I would like if they would go back to the old way,” said Raul Cazares, who has lived in Mt. Angel for five years. “This is messy. It stinks.” bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler big and the flower end very small. They all are deformed like this. Could you please tell me what are the problems so that I can correct them? Answer: Your zucchini could be suf- fering from a couple of problems. The squash flowers could be inadequately pollinated. Not all the ovaries in the fruit may have gotten pollinated. This some- times occurs when the weather is cold and wet when the flower is blooming. Do you irrigate overhead? Honeybees and bumblebees may have trouble transferring the pollen if there is over- head sprinkling going on. I’ve mentioned in previous columns that you can hand pollinate squash flowers by picking male flowers (those without the little squash below the blos- som) and using them to transfer pollen to the female flowers. Or use a paint- brush to transfer pollen from male to females. Disease can also cause misshapen squash fruits. A disease-causing orga- nism may be entering the flower via the stigma and style. You didn’t mention any symptoms of disease in the mal- By slicing, blanching and freezing them, you can preserve most of fresh-picked qualities of baby summer squash for winter’s soups, stews and risotto. formed fruit, but sometimes, gardeners may see fruit with shriveled tips that eventually show Botrytis (gray mold). This problem occurs most frequently when it rains, or after overhead sprin- kling. Try watering with drip irrigation, or hand watering with the hose to make sure the zucchini plants don’t get wet and see if your misshappen fruit pro- duction stops. Carol Savonen is a naturalist and writer. She is an associate professor emeritus at OSU and tends a large gar- den in the Coast Range Hills west of Phi- lomath with her husband and dogs. She can be reached at Carol.Savonen@ore- gonstate.edu or c/o: EESC, 422 Kerr Ad- min. Bldg., OSU, Corvallis, OR 97331. Address: P.O. 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