It's harvest time in our garden.  It was an unexpected joy to discover that we can garden in hard, rocky clay soil!  Our tomatoes were very productive and we made 8 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 4 quarts of salsa.  YUM!  Next year, we will need sturdier tomato supports as the tomato cages we used this year have been completely crushed by the weight of all our tomatoes.

The one area of our garden that caused puzzlement was our squash patch.  We waited and waited for the seedlings to appear and after a month, we replanted our seeds.  All of a sudden, in July we had a squash explosion and the patch is overgrown now with pumpkins, cucumbers, and zucchini.  We have so much zucchini that we are starting to great creative with our recipes.  We have baked regular zucchini bread, chocolate chip zucchini cookies, chicken and zucchini soup, and our FAVORITE chocolate zucchini cake!  We suspect that zucchini gardners across the country are in the same boat as to what to do with such an overabundance so here's a list of what you can do with extra zucchini:

*Use a large, overgrown zucchini as a baseball bat.

*Hollow out a small zucchini and use as a boat in the bath tub.

*Give away to neighbors who are still accepting garden offers.

*Giant dog toy.

If none of these silly suggestions work for you, here's my grandmother's Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe.

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE

1/2 CUP OLEO

1/2 CUP OIL

2 CUPS SUGAR

2 EGGS

1 TSP VANILLA

1/2 CUP BUTTERMILK

2 1/2 CUPS FLOUR

4 TBSP COCOA

1/2 TSP CINNAMON

1/2 TSP CLOVES

3/4 CUP NUTS

3/4 TSP BAKING SODA

3/4 TSP SALT

2 CUPS GRATED ZUCCHINI

COMBINE ALL INGREDIENTS.  BAKE IN A 325 DEGREE (F) OVEN FOR 40-45 MINUTES IN A GREASED ANGEL FOOD/BUNDT PAN .

I HAVE ADDED 1/2 CUP CHOCOLATE CHIPS TO MAKE THIS CAKE MORE APPEALING TO A PICKY EATER.