Zucchini
- Linda Sattler
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
“You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.”
(Psalm 65:11)
My vegetable garden is not that large – four by eight – and I pack too much into it with a “survival of the fittest” attitude. I never know what I will get, if anything. A local groundhog steals every single pear on our trees and tomatoes disappear as soon as there’s a hint of red. Apparently, though, green is a color animals ignore. Returning from a month-long trip at the end of July, I had about thirty cucumbers and twenty zucchini. I should clarify: I had twenty FOUR-POUND zucchini – each one the size of a loaf of bread. Joy quickly turned to stress – what could I possibly do with eighty pounds of zucchini? I donated nineteen to a food pantry and kept one.
“…give and it will be given to you...” (Luke 6:38)
Since then, I go out to my garden every day searching for proper-sized zucchini. I move leaves, I feel with my hands, and for a week, I find nothing. Finally, I find one – another four- pound monster! The next day, an even bigger one. This continues daily. It’s like a Garden of Eden with giant zucchini forming a day after flowering. I think I understand how Eve couldn’t resist an apple. She was probably surrounded by zucchini.
“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)
There are several things happening simultaneously at this time. I am getting an abundance of zucchini and my kitchen has been demolished for a renovation. This is stressful for me. We are living in the basement. I have a microwave, an electric grill and one electric burner. I am searching for zucchini recipes to use up our bounty –ones with no oven needed. I’ve shredded about ten pounds of zucchini, squeezed out the juices and frozen the pulp for zucchini fritters in winter. Did I mention my family hates zucchini? Like the parable of the loaves and fishes, but, when my family gets passed the basket they exclaim “Oh no! More fish!”
“…then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” (Proverbs 3:10)
My youngest tells us they will visit us from college when all the zucchini are gone. I don’t think I’ll ever see my child again. Even now, with half the leaves gray and autumn upon us, I just found a giant one in plain sight. They seem to appear out of nowhere. My sunflowers were like this as well. All last year I planted sunflowers, only to have the squirrels take every seed. This summer, they just popped up – a gift from the birds visiting our feeder. I think God’s love is like that sometimes. It just pops up out of nowhere and we are drenched with His blessings. So much so, we forget to be thankful and, instead, complain about the excess. We can grow complacent in His love. As a Michigander, I know this all too well – every year we complain about the summer heat and then comes January. This January, I plan on eating those zucchini fritters and, hopefully, thanking the Lord for that last taste of summer heat.
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