Foodie Book Club: Zora’s Zucchini
It’s the end of the strangest August in living memory. Can you believe school is starting next week? Where did the summer go?? Did you read anything fun? Anything inspiring? Are you casting about for good kids’ books as you juggle working and distance learning with your kids again? I’ve got one for you….
As they know I am a food educator, friends and parents ask me all the time for recipe recommendations or tips for cultivating kids’ (or their own) diets in a way that leads to a healthier or more adventurous palate. For the former, I can offer my services as a 24/7 recipe hotline, though I often direct them to the FoodPrints website, featuring many dozens of delicious, inexpensive, kid-tested recipes. For the latter, I encourage them to garden and/or cook with the kids as much as possible. In addition to the beautiful and tasty things we can grow, gardening is good for our bodies, our mental and emotional health, and it is a great excuse to spend some quiet, reflective time outside in the fresh air. When is the last time you took a break from working at your computer to listen to birds sing or watch a butterfly? How exciting it can be when your long-nurtured cucumber or pea plants start to produce! (Yes, yes, I know I said this was about a book recommendation. I’m getting there….)
Many novice gardeners get overly excited with the planting — kids and adults alike (I am guilty of this, too!) — and later in the season suddenly find themselves with a glut of a particular vegetable or herb. Well. For some guidance on that particular challenge, I offer one of my favorite kids’ books: Zora’s Zucchini by Katherine Pryor. It’s a tale about a little girl who one summer decides to plant a garden. By midsummer, she finds herself with a bevy of summer squashes. A LOT of them. After many, many family meals featuring the delicious cucurbits, with the plants still going strong, Zora realizes she is growing way too much to eat within her household. After sharing some of the abundance with a few neighbors, she still can’t keep up. So she comes up with a brilliant plan so nary a zucchini is wasted….
Oh, you want to know what happens? Well, you can pick up a copy of the book, or you can watch a reading of it on FoodPrints’ Instagram feed.
And if you find yourself with a few too many summer squashes, whether you grew them yourselves or came upon them nestled in your CSA box or through a friendly dropoff from a gardening neighbor, you might consider this recipe for chocolate zucchini cake. Or this one for curried zucchini soup. Ooh, or this one for a summer squash and ricotta tart! Like I said, I am a 24/7 recipe resource. ;) Do YOU have a favorite recipe that highlights summer’s bounty? Or a favorite kids’ book about food? Share it in the comments!
