Gardeners! How are those plantings coming along!?

[MoochNNoodles]

We didn't make it to church today.  We kept hearing this funny noise under the house so early this morning DH went under there.  A connection for the condensate pump for the AC unit had broken and was spewing water up under the house.  So fixing that took most of the day.  My DR gave me an antihisitimine to help with this fluid in my head, mostly my ears and well; it makes me feel exhausted.  I'm not comfortable driving on it.  

 

[mamamia]

@moochnnoodles-are your cucumbers on the ground or raised?  I had a rough time with mine on the ground when it's too wet.  This year, I made a simple trellis out of a few wood stakes and some plastic fencing material.  They're doing MUCH better!  And if it is powdery mildew, you can make a spray out of hydrogen peroxide and water (I do a 9-1 part mix, meaning 9 parts of water and 1 part HP) and I've also made a spray using milk and baking soda that was pretty effective (I'll have to find the recipe for that one).  Last year, my cucumbers were awful until I raised them and started spraying them weekly for powdery mildew.  It's a bit more work, but we had TONS of cucumbers! 

 

[Winchester]

Those zucchini chips are delicious! Honest! I just did these with salt and pepper....and some of them I got a little too salty/peppery. But really good overall, I brought in 1/2 cup of chips (about 30 calories, give or take) for my work snack. I'm going to try some zucchini bbq chips tonight. I figure if I get them in the dehydrator by 6:00 or so tonight, they'll be ready by around 6:00 Tuesday morning. So that should work.

They're nice and crisp...12 hours seems to be about right. Good flavor. I can see dipping them in a nice lower-fat dip for something good to munch on while watching movies instead of chips and dip or nachos (not that there's anything against chips or nachos!

)

It's not like I don't have zucchini to experiment with! Somebody told me that, in order to figure out the calories, I'll have to take about 1-1/2 cups of sliced zucchini and weigh it for the calorie content on my scales. She said the calorie content pretty much stays the same because it's just the water that's gone, but zucchini doesn't have a lot of calories to start with.

I used my larger zucchini to slice, simply because they shrink. A lot.

If anybody wants to try it in their oven, from what I'm reading the temp should be right around 200 degrees F or so for 4 - 6 hours, depending on crispness. I'm doing them at 135 degrees F in the dehydrator for roughly 12 hours and turning them over after 5 to 6 hours.

 

[pat]

Fwiw, one of my favorite ways to have zucchini is as noodles.  You can do this as simply as using a vegetable peeler to slice long strips off your zucchini.  I sauté them with a very tiny bit of lemon olive oil and garlic and have alongside my dinner protein.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

@moochnnoodles-are your cucumbers on the ground or raised?  I had a rough time with mine on the ground when it's too wet.  This year, I made a simple trellis out of a few wood stakes and some plastic fencing material.  They're doing MUCH better!  And if it is powdery mildew, you can make a spray out of hydrogen peroxide and water (I do a 9-1 part mix, meaning 9 parts of water and 1 part HP) and I've also made a spray using milk and baking soda that was pretty effective (I'll have to find the recipe for that one).  Last year, my cucumbers were awful until I raised them and started spraying them weekly for powdery mildew.  It's a bit more work, but we had TONS of cucumbers! 

They are in a raised bed; but it's been SUPER wet this year!  I think we got 10" of rain in June!  And another 3 so far this month!  It's not helping!  I do have some on a trellis and those looked the best; some are growing out of the bed into my yard.  Because of the rain I haven't been out in a few days. What I can see from the house; doesn't look good.  I need to get outside when my kids are not with me!  The baby wants to trample everything and the swingset is still curing from DH putting a sealant on it.  I have beans that are overdue for picking because I haven't been able to get out there!  So annoying!  Doesn't help we're hitting a heat wave now.

Fwiw, one of my favorite ways to have zucchini is as noodles.  You can do this as simply as using a vegetable peeler to slice long strips off your zucchini.  I sauté them with a very tiny bit of lemon olive oil and garlic and have alongside my dinner protein.

That sounds delicious!  I'm on a little lemon or lime kick.  Depending on what I'm cooking!