How Many Zucchini Plants to Plant

Reader Contribution by Lisa Richards
Published on March 6, 2011
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 If you are like me, you are thinking about what to grow in your vegetable garden this year. Maybe you’ve already ordered all of your seeds, or like me, are doing it in batches. We’ve got most of it ordered, some already received, but still have some decisions to make for the rest.

The subject of zucchini came up the other day. How many plants do we want? We have an amazing harvest last year. Evidently so did most of the region, as we got truckloads upon truckloads to feed to the critters, too. By the end of the season, even covering them up with yogurt wouldn’t get them eaten. The sheep hung in a little longer than the pigs, but by the end of the summer, we were all DONE!

It got me to do lots of new things to preserve them, though. As I sit hear snacking on curry-flavored zucchini chips, I’m thinking that several of these new things are keepers.

  • Slice them length-wise with a mandolin and dry in the dehydrator. This is quick to do during your busy season. We pick ones that are the same width as our mandolin and fill up all dozen trays of our deydrator. It usually takes about 12 hours to dry them. Then we put into plastic bags that we seal on our vacuum sealer. (We found zip bags inadequate at keeping them dry during the summer — rotting zukes is one of the most disgusting smells around, just for the record. Vacuum seal or freeze. Trust me.) All winter I’ve been adding those strips to things like lasagna and potato gratins.  If I cook noodles of some flavor, I’ll add a handful of zuke strips to the pot as well.  
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