Sometimes I wonder why I plant summer squash and zucchini. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a nice slice of crook neck summer squash as well as the next guy but I must say I do not like it enough to eat it three meals a day for six weeks straight. I believe I would be happy with bumming a small morsel of zucchini from my neighbors or family members. I know there are some ambitious souls out there who have found fantastic recipes to use up their surplus but I haven’t ever put forth that much effort, possibly because I don’t like it THAT much. Besides, my problems usually begin from my failure to PICK the squash, not my failure to eat it. Check out my garden update to see the results of failing to pick for 1 week! (Notice most of it is inedible).
So what do you do with old, over grown squash? Turn it into chicken food, they will LOVE IT! I use to simply slice the stuff in half lengthwise and let the chickens peck out the insides but I discovered they didn’t like it all that much that way and I still ended up throwing away a lot of nutritious flesh. So out came the food processer.
The chickens, ducks and turkeys had this pile of shredded squash devoured in a matter of minutes!
I believe I even received a few very sincere “thank you” clucks from the girls.
The only downside to giving your chickens a large quantity of delicious, fresh food is that they quickly begin to expect it. Then, when you fail to deliver they pout.
For those of you who actually want to eat your excessive amounts of squash, check out these great ideas to learn how to grill it, bake it, freeze it, bottle it, drink it, and more!:
The list could really go on, and on, and on. Just like your zucchini harvest! If you have a favorite method for consuming crook neck and zucchini please, do share!