I don’t usually write (anymore) along traditional nutritionist party lines, like Cool New Ways to Enjoy More Vegetables or The Top 10 Vegetables to Make You Poop, but in the last few years, one of my greatest joys of summer has been pulling baskets of free fresh produce straight out of my garden. I’m someone who has always resented dirt, bugs, and physical labor, and when I used to peruse books on gardening or talk to garden aficionados, I always felt overwhelmed by the thought of all the fertilizers I assumed you would need to mix and the careful timetables I thought you would need to follow to keep home-grown plants alive. But fresh food is damn expensive, and growing our own produce can be a revolutionary act of anti-capitalist food security. The ability to offer ourselves a gently nutritious balance of all food groups is more often than not dependent on food cost and food access as much as it is on preference. And the truth is, it really isn’t that hard! Growing food is a great exercise in letting go of perfectionism, and actually works A-ok with a pretty C-average amount of effort. So I would be remiss not to talk about this aspect of my food life, because when I am intuitively craving a fresh crunchy salad, it sometimes wouldn’t happen if not for the delicious free lettuce right outside my door.

I started my raised vegetable bed about 6 years ago, shortly after I moved into my new townhouse. I don’t actually have a lawn or yard, just access to an 8×10 plot in the community garden. Over the years, I’ve learned that a lot of food can happen in that amount of space, especially if that food is zucchini. If you are a beginner gardener, and you want to feel like a champion, start with zucchini. Seriously. I’m not someone who waters every day, or adds much compost (just once a season, at planting time), or who “deals” with the slugs. I use no fertilizers, additives, or pest control. When I grow spinach it ends up with lots of bite holes, and my bountiful May lettuce eventually burns as August rolls in. I basically throw the seeds in the ground in spring and see what happens. But every time I’ve planted zucchini, I end up with somewhere between one and one thousand pounds of zucchini by fall.

Why is it so easy to grow zucchini? I have no idea! As mentioned, I’ve never taken the time to read about plants or how you grow them. Every spring, I get a pile of seed catalogs in the mail. (If you buy seeds even once, from any seed company, trust me—you will too!) I enjoy browsing through their colorful pictures during the gray of February, and I order a handful of selections that sound tasty. I try to get a mix of different vegetables to ensure that something succeeds, because I certainly don’t take the time to check the climate maps and make sure those veggies are right for my “zone.” (And besides—our climate is a fun house of weather astonishment at this point in human history anyway). But nearly every year, no matter what happens with the peas and the beans, the formidable zucchini seems to rise above all the challenges I can throw at it. Forgot to water my garden? The romaine wilts, but the zucchini just keeps on trucking. Too much rain? The peppers stunt, but the zucchini just gets fatter. Before I was a pale-green thumbed novice gardener, I never understood those boxes of FREE (PLEASE PLEASE TAKE SOME!) zucchini at the library, post office, corner bus stop, and even once left on my doorstep unlabeled by a desperate stranger. I knew there was this whispered gardener’s ghost story about how zucchini never stops growing until it eats your children and pets, but until now, I didn’t have the knowing glint in my eye of someone who has experienced it first-hand.

So when I feel insecure about my gardening skills, or when the Brussel sprouts seeds I bought do absolutely nothing, I still return to zucchini when I need a confidence boost. If I were to give my “Top 10 Tips” for a beginner gardener, five of them would be to plant zucchini. (Quickly, the other five: 1) Save the seeds of the plants that succeed for next year: these are the tough guys who made it through your gauntlet of neglect and their offspring will serve you well. 2) Throw in a bag of compost or two when planting. Weirdly, plants have to eat too. 3) Save a stack of flattened cardboard boxes to throw on the garden at the end of the season. Then you have way fewer weeds to clear out in spring. 4) Try and water the garden sometimes, when you feel like it. Nothing (ok, maybe zucchini) can live with no water ever. 5) Finally, don’t worry about starting seeds indoors. That takes way too much time and the cat will definitely knock them over. Yes, many of your new shoots will die in the harsh freezes and floods of early spring. But the winners (see above) will survive).

This year I planted zucchini again, because I was desperate for a victory after “The Mites on the Broccoli Tragedy” of last summer. The first emerald cylinders are glistening in my garden right now, and I’m excited for the bounty to come. The last year I grew zucchini, I got the home run trophy with at least 40 pounds of squash by mid-September. Knowing what awaits me, I have been gathering my zucchini recipes. (You’ll notice I love justifying the purchase of luxury ingredients as free squash accoutrements). I plan to put on my adult pants and figure out how to cook the full bounty, rather than dump them with the neighbors in the dead of night, which feels like a double win. This bonus step is totally not necessary if you want an easier time of it—food banks always love fresh produce, after all—but if you want to start building your farm-to-table confidence, some of my favorite recipes are below. Perhaps you too, from a crunchy foundation of summer squashes, can climb someday to the deeply satisfying heights of (occasional) vegetable garden triumph.

Three of Anita’s Favorite Zucchini Recipes, Which Are Not and Never Will Be “Zoodles”

Zucchini Ghanoush

This recipe is inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s Zucchini Baba Ghanoush recipe in Plenty More. It makes a bowl-full of dip.

1. Slice, oil and roast ~5 large zucchini on a tray in a 375 degree oven until soft, about 15-30 minutes.
2. In a food processor or powerful blender, blend zucchini until smooth with:

• 3 tablespoons pine nuts (or walnuts)
• ½ cup yogurt
• 1 fat clove garlic
• 1/3 cup sesame tahini
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Pinch each of red pepper flakes and za’atar spice blend (sub with mix of thyme, cumin, and coriander

3. Top dip with 3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese and more pine nuts. Enjoy with pita, crackers, or however you like!

Cheesy Southern-Style Squash Bake

I could eat this casserole for weeks on end (and sometimes do!) Both green and yellow zucchini squash work well, or try a fun and flirty mix! Makes ~one 9×13 tray.

1. Shred an enormous amount of yellow and/or green summer squash. Enough to pack tight in a 9×13 baking tray. I have no idea how many—five or ten? Just keep shredding till you can’t shred anymore.
2. In a large bowl, mix all that shredded zucchini with the following:

• A big plop (~1 cup+) of mayonnaise
• A couple of handfuls (~2-3 cups) of shredded cheddar cheese
• One diced onion (white is nice if you have it)
• One diced red pepper (optional, for extra color)
• Sprinkling each of salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, dried dill, and paprika (or as many of those spices as you have on hand—no worries if not all)
• Optional scoop of yogurt for extra tang
• ~1 cup crushed crackers or cornflake crumbs

3. Oil a 9×13 baking tray and spread the squash mix in it. Top with extra shredded cheese and crackers, if desired, and bake at 350 degrees until nice and baked, about 30-40 minutes.

Cardamom Zucchini Muffins

The addition of cardamom adds a tantalizing spice to the traditional zucchini bread recipe. Zucchini baked goods are also great to freeze—allowing you to extend the zucchini marathon long into winter! If you are a lazy baker like me, just mix everything together at once and don’t worry about the wet/dry perfectionism. Yes, the texture might be a little off, but the time savings is totally worth it! Makes 12 regular-sized muffins.

1. In a large bowl, mix together:

• 1-2 shredded zucchini (do this first and try to squeeze some of the water out before adding everything else)
• 2 cups flour, or gluten-free 1:1 flour substitute (i.e Bobs 1:1) (if you have it available, mix in ¼-1/2 cup buckwheat, oat, or hazelnut flour for some nice nuttiness)
• 1 teaspoon each baking powder and baking soda
• ¼ cup yogurt, ideally Greek (sub with applesauce for dairy-free)
• ½ cup evaporated cane juice (sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup oil or melted butter
• ½ cup of some kind of chopped nut, i.e pecans or walnuts (optional)
• Splash vanilla
• Pinch each of salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg
• Large pinch of cardamom

2. Divide between 12 oiled or papered muffin cups and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until firm (on a toothpick) in the center.

BONUS! Anita’s All-Time Top Zucchini Recipe Tip:

If you start to feel threatened at any point (by the exponential increase in squash mass), solve two problems at once: snip off the fresh zucchini blossoms and eat them! They can be deep-fried or sautéed and are 100% edible.

Happy gardening!