Harvesting Summer Squash

Yesterday we began harvesting our first tromboccini squash. Harvesting summer squash can sometimes be tricky because there always seems to be a few that get overlooked and grow to baseball bat size overnight. Harvesting Tromboccini is no exception. Yesterday I harvested 6 nice size tromboccini squash and today I noticed another one in the garden that was larger than any of the others I harvested yesterday. Tromboccini is a very long heirloom summer squash that grows in a curled shape and looks like a trombone. I thought my kids would get a kick out of the novelty of the squash. What I wasn't prepared for, however, was the sprawling vines of the plant. It truly grows more like a winter squash plant than a bushing zucchini or yellow squash. It's a good thing I left quite a bit of room for them, but they are invading everything around them!You can see that a few of the squash were growing through my fence along the garden. Again, I didn't know that the plant was vining, so this surprised me, but I have a pretty vertical garden already so it's no big deal!

My sister-in-law shared an incredible zucchini pickle recipe with me. I didn't think I would enjoy those pickles and was quite shocked by how delicious they were. I plan to make some of those pickles after I harvest more summer squash. I'll post the recipe separately.

I love this time of year.....the quandary of which produce to serve for each meal....such dilemmas!