I've been too busy with the garden the past two months to post here or even read much, but with school starting back up it appears I'll have a little more time.
Most of the work is the usual stuff. However, I did try something new this year. We decided to do edible landscaping in the backyard instead of regular garden plots. Because it's the first year, there's been a lot more work that fortunately won't have to be repeated next year, but it also meant that I cut some corners in other areas. One of those corners involved me wanting the yard to fill in quickly and look nice, so I planted 25 zucchini plants. Now you know, that's going to be a lot of zucchini.
Anyway, I ran across a recipe in the USDA canning guide for zucchini pineapple, so I decided to give it a try. Basically, cubed or shredded zucchini is cooked in pineapple juice, lemon juice, and sugar, and then canned in a water bath. I tested the "pineapple" in a family favorite jello salad. DDIL couldn't tell the difference. DS was immediately suspicious (because I don't make that jello salad in the summer, only for Thanksgiving and Christmas), and "knew" something was off. He said he'd rather not have it when life is normal, but would be very grateful for it when life isn't normal anymore.
I thought that it worked overall and am satisfied with the results.
However, I also have a freeze dryer, so I decided to throw some in there and see what it was like. Holy cow, is it good! I pressed the shredded zucchini pineapple into patties and FD'd them. Tasteeee! I'm now experimenting with other flavors of juice.