by Amy Ambrosius

Sunshine yellow and grass green, summer squash are heat-loving plants that really symbolize the season.  Squash plants are rewarding, in terms of ease to grow, as well as being a prolific crop.  A few simple ideas can improve your harvest and help you enjoy your bounty. 

Although squashes tend to vine out over the ground, a way to save space is to train the plants on trellises.  Trellising also reduces the amount of squatting or bending necessary to work with the plants and gets the fruit out of reach of many pests.  Mildew can also be a problem when squash rest on damp ground.  Cook's Garden also offers a mix of bush-type Summer Squash seed that avoids the trellis vs. vine issue altogether, something that can be helpful to gardeners with limited space.

Most squash plants only take about 50 days to maturity and produce all summer long, but staggered plantings will also extend the harvest.  As squash plants are quite prolific it can be interesting to plant several varieties to maximize enjoyment of your plentiful crop.  Along with classic crook neck yellow squash and standard zucchini types, pattypan varieties like Flying Saucer and Sunburst (both from http://www.johnnyseeds.com/) add diversity to both garden and plate with unusual color combinations and scalloped ring around the middle.  Though different squash types can cross pollinate with one another, don't let this keep you from experimenting with different varieties, as the results would not affect fruit quality.  This would only be an issue with seeds saved for a following year's crop. 

Pick small squash for the best texture and flavor, and improved production.  If the squash are allowed to get too ripe on the vine, they divert plant resources from making new squash.  Tiny tender squash need a minimum of preparation, another reason they're perfect for summer, as a reduced cooking time will help avoid heating up the kitchen.  Zucchini and yellow squash varieties can be picked when the fruits are 4-6 inches in length, while scalloped squash like Sunburst are ready to go at four inches across, but an earlier harvest yields baby squash that are a gourmet treat and popular with chefs everywhere.

Roasted, baked, fried and grilled, endlessly versatile squash can be used in all courses of a meal. It's popular in many types of world cuisine and there are even recipes for the flowers. Zucchini is probably most well-known in Italian dishes but can also be found in Japanese tempura dishes. Yellow squash is popular in Southern American cooking, and the simplest preparation is also one of the best.  Dice an onion and sauté in butter in a small pot.  Add yellow squash sliced into rings and about an inch of water, gently simmering until the squash is tender.  Served with salt and pepper, this is one of the most comforting dishes there is.

Many squash recipes involve one of two methods of preparing the squash before adding to a dish.  The first, shredding and salting, helps to draw out the excess water in the squash and is helpful when using yellow squash and zucchini in casseroles, lasagna, breads and fritters.  Simply wash the fruit and shred with a cheese grater, using the larger holes.  Sprinkle the shreds with salt and squeeze in cheesecloth or press between layers of paper towels.  This method also has the benefit of concentrating the good squash flavor and allowing it to come through where it might otherwise get lost in a dish.  Zucchini shredded like this is a great addition to lasagna filling.  Due to the abundance of squash many gardeners face, enterprising cooks have incorporated shredded squash into baked goods.  Shredded and blotted squash have been known to find their way into baked goods, as a substitution for carrots in cake as well as completely camouflaged in otherwise decadent brownies.

The second method is a quick blanch, and can be used for very small squash whole or slightly larger squash, cut into uniform chunks. Bring water to a boil and add squash briefly, until the color on the peel has just started to brighten.  Drain and shock with cold water to stop the cooking process.  Blanched squash can be added to pasta sauces or sautéed quickly with olive oil and herbs for an easy side dish.

A beautiful fresh salad can include the smallest of pattypan squash blanched, and added to other small vegetables like briefly boiled tiny new potatoes and asparagus cut into bite-sized pieces, dressed simply with a good extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, topped with freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano for those days when it's too hot to really cook.  The beauty of this salad is that it can be modified to suit whatever one has on hand, and unlike many dressed salads, keeps nicely for lunch the next day.  Pasta can be substituted for potatoes, and anything from mushrooms to bacon to roasted nuts added for flavor.

Amy Ambrosius is a writer and budding gardener living on the West Coast with her husband.  She owes her interest in writing, food and gardening to family; having learned to cook and appreciate poetry under the tutelage of her great-grandmother and weeding flowerbeds and practicing unusual gardening techniques with her grandmother while discussing Greek mythology.  She dreams of having an edible front yard someday. You can contact her via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it