Bigger Is Not Always Better

This whole gardening thing has definitely been a learning experience. I came over to my parents' house last night to learn how to can salsa since we have a bazillion tomatoes. I have a bunch of pictures from that, but no time to post so I'll share a little gardening tidbit I learned...

From my experience with gardening, you usually let whatever it is grow until it gets to its biggest size and then it's ready to be picked. It turns out that that is not how it works with squash. I had been keeping on eye on my squash feeling so proud that they continued to grow. After all of the salsa making, I asked my mom about the squash and she informed me that they should be picked MUCH sooner. So, I went outside with a flashlight (it was now midnight by this time) and picked all of the summer squash.

Picture of the squash before I knew that it was bad to have big squash.

Comparing the size of the squash to my foot.

It turns out that squash seeds become as big as pumpkin seeds if you let the squash grow too big. (Anyone ever roasted squash seeds like you do pumpkin seeds? ...just wondering if that works.) So we cut up the huge squashes, seeded them, and then put them through a slicer attachment on my mom's Bosch. After that, we put them in little baggies and into the freezer. The plan is that sometime this I will make some zucchini bread with it.

Little squash pieces!

Bagged and ready to go!