Baby Patty Pans

Friends, do you remember my Veggie Report from June 25th?  Sort of iffy on it?  Okay, well these were my patty pan squash plants on June 25th:

These are my patty pan squash plants today, about 3 weeks later:

AND, I have a few baby patty pan squashes out there. I'm hoping I can harvest a few in a week or so.

I'd still be happy to hear your patty pan squash recipes if you have any to share.

Fertilizer Friday - I'm Baaaaaack!

Tootsie over at Tootsie Time hosts Fertilizer Friday each week, where participants fertilize their flowers and post photos of their gardens.  I like the meme because I''m not good at remembering to fertilize, or rather when the last time I fertilized was!  I took a break from Fertilizer Fridays last year, but decided to give it a go whenever I can this year.

This is what's happening at the School of Yard Knocks this Fertilizer Friday:

Wave petunias in a whiskey barrel.  I bought these at the end of June for $6 for two packages at Canadian Tire.  They were pretty sad looking when I bought them, but I'm hopeful they will still flourish.

More of my bargain wave petunias:

My Therese Bugnet rugrosa finished her first round of blooms about 7-10 days ago, but is putting out new flowers again.

My beloved yarrow:

I have tomatoes!  I'm embarassed to say that I didn't even know I had baby tomatoes until I took my camera out there today to take these pictures.

I also have baby zucchini!  This is one of the yellow ones, but I also have baby green ones.

My patty pan squash plants are HUGE and putting out the blooms:

Two barrels of petunias in the foreground.  They don't get a lot of sun, but I'm hoping they'll still get a little bigger.

My clematis really does have buds!  I can't wait for them to open.

The first raspberries are *almost* ready (I had one the other day, and they are still on the sour side, but I couldn't resist).

What's happening in your garden this Friday?

And now for the Veggie Report ...

My veggies are coming along nicely.  We've had a good mix of rain and sunshine over the past few weeks.

I went a little crazy with my tomato purchases this year.  I have no idea what I was doing but I ended up with way too many tomato plants.  I have 17 planted and I sent 5 home with my Auntie Mary this morning. I know I have Lemon Boys and Sweet Millions, but there are at least two other varieties out there.  Will make a note the next time I go out (it's currently raining).

In addition to my usual bed of tomatoes, I stuck a row down the centre of this bed as well.  Those are beets on the sides.

National Pickling cucumbers.

Patty Pan squash (also known as Sunburst or scallop squash).

Kentucky Wonder pole beans and zucchini.  I have two beds planted like this - one with Gold Rush zucchini and one with black zucchini.

Cooking up Patty Pan Squash

I cooked up my first patty pan (or scallop or sunburst) squash today. I've never grown them before.  I posted a picture of a baby one on August 1; three weeks later, it was about 4" across.  I had no idea how big they were supposed to get before you pick them, so I finally googled today.  The one I picked was on the big side of the scale - apparently, you want them no more than 3-4" across, preferably smaller.  Who knew?

I've never cooked patty pan squash before either, so I also googled that while I was at it.  Apparently, the easiest way is simply to prick the skin and then steam them for 5-6 minutes.  We all know that "easy" has no appeal for me, so I went with a different recipe - chop up the squash, dot with butter, sprinkle with parmesan and whatever spices your heart desires, and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

The parmesan had a Mediterranean feel to it, so my heart decided to desire an Italian seasoning mix plus a dash of salt.

End result - it takes much longer than 15 minutes, though maybe my pieces were too big (methinks not, 15 minutes seemed terribly optimistic right from the get go).  Plan for 30-45minutes, depending on the size of your pieces.  The smell is heavenly, and the squash is pretty darn tasty.  Might try this again down the road, but for the time being, I will likely try other ways, just to see if there's something better.

Anyone have a recipe for me?