I launched into this gardening season here in northern Colorado with a plan and a mindset. I would grow a “bush” zucchini rather than an indeterminate viney dragon-like variety delighting in rapidly growing to take over the bulk of my plot.

As for my mindset, I was vowing to stay on top of production and make good imaginative use of all the zukes that would come my way.

I chose a bush zucchini variety called Raven from the huge array of plants at the annual Gardens on Spring Creek plant sale May 20th. Having a community garden plot right adjacent to the botanic gardens this year I was thrilled to be able to walk over and plant directly after the sale. And now that it’s August 8th, I have to say that the plant lived up to its description, although the “bush” did grow very very large!

I love the look of the Raven blossoms, too, they are stunning! Yet they don’t have the deep cup that my Romanesco zucchini did in years past, perfect for stuffing, battering and frying.

And before you knew it – we’re off!!! Off to a good start – a grilled vegetable dinner with everything straight out of the garden tasted so delicious … the first week of July.

Homemade garden featured pizza is one of my very favorites, and this combo was just perfect.

But I did have some pumpkin blossoms that seemed like a good shape and size for stuffing!

The garden zucchini bonanza is coming on strong now. So next comes:

These donuts.

They are springy, fluffy and chocolatey with plenty of finely shredded fresh zucchini to help use up all that harvest.

Chocolate Zucchini Donuts (gluten free)
Makes nine scrumptious baked donuts

1 1/3 c. Bob’s Red Mill 1×1 GF flour
1/3 c. cocoa powder
1/4 c. organic cane sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 tbsp. melted coconut oil
2/3 c. almond milk
2/3 c. finely shredded zucchini, excess moisture squeezed out through fine mesh strainer

Additional organic cane sugar (about a 1/3 cup) and a few shakes of cinnamon for coating fresh out the oven donuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Prep two nonstick donut pans by liberally greasing inserts with coconut oil.
Mix dry ingredients, then egg, melted coconut oil and almond milk. Thoroughly stir in shredded zucchini, making sure it’s evenly distributed throughout the batter. Spoon into donut inserts in your pans. Bake on middle rack of oven for 15-17 minutes, until springy and beginning to pull away from sides of the pan. Invert onto wire cooling rack and immediately toss and coat in cinnamon sugar.

Then – grilled zucchini parmesan, with a delicious Italian chicken sausage marinara, many zucchini sliced thin lengthwise and grilled with olive oil, salt and pepper, to form the layers.

Somewhere in the summer haze I made a super delicious chicken, sautéed zucchini, onion, garlic and jalapeño meatloaf, and from the generous pan drippings a perfect spicy gravy.

And a fun experiment making vegan “pepperoni” with round slices of baby zucchini tossed and rubbed with ground fennel, smoked paprika and dried red chili flakes – almost more pepperoni flavor before sautéing, but nonetheless awesome! It was incredible to me how authentic the fragrance was! This pizza on a quinoa crust … chewy and so good.

This ‘lil frittata was so good – simple yet effective – as my son and I would say. Made in a sunburst design it was perfect for a Sunday brunch.

Yes – these were truly luscious! Lemon fresh basil zucchini cakes – though the recipe says it’s zucchini bread, one of my friends whom I gifted a cake said to call it bread is to misname it – and I felt the same, when I took my first bite. Whatever it’s called, I thank Smitten Kitchen for the fabulous recipe “Ultimate Zucchini Bread.”

And last night – oh it was wonderful, and thankfully there’s leftovers – summer vegetable coconut curry with lots of basil and garlic and jalapeño, this has to be one of my favorite Thai style combinations. With zucchini of course! Plus three kinds of summer beans: Italian, Blue Lake and yellow wax, and a big handful of Principe Borghese tomatoes.

And I know the zucchini tales will continue, I was just gifted one from a fellow gardener today, though I didn’t really need it – it was so kind, and two salad cucumbers came my way too. But so far, I’m kinda keeping up with my goals and that feels more fun than anything.

Wishing you all the grand bounty of summer, or winter, whatever season you find yourself in. If you’d like the recipe of any of these dishes other than the donuts (which should definitely be tried) just let me know.

Many blessings!