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. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309
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