A big thank you to Pennington, for sponsoring this post! All opinions in this post are my own. Please see below for additional disclosure.
When I was a kid (and on into my adult years), my dad had a community garden. He had a large yard, but being blind, he needed help tending it. His solution was to use most of it as a vegetable garden (and once we outgrew playing in the backyard, nearly the whole yard became the garden). Different neighbors would all come to help plant the seeds, weed and keep it watered, and harvest the ripe vegetables. Anyone was welcome to the garden’s bounty; the only payment he asked was help in keeping the garden up. He shouldered the costs of supplies, and others helped with the maintenance.
It was a wonderful way of eliminating fresh produce costs for several families in our neighborhood, and splitting up the work made it manageable for everyone. The things I learned about vegetable gardening (and canning, too!) came from lots of different women in my childhood neighborhood, so vegetable gardening is something that will always be dear to my heart.
Caring for your vegetable garden can actually be simple, even if you do all the work in your garden by yourself. Pennington is known for exceptional lawn and garden care products, and now they are aiming to make fertilizing easy for all kinds of gardeners. If you have a vegetable garden, you should check out their Tomato and Vegetable fertilizer formula for use in their Smart Feed Sprayer System. It makes fertilizing an easy spray – and well nourished plants yield hearty veggies! You can read more about the Smart Feed Sprayer System below. (Note: Clicking the graphic below will ope an easy-to-read pdf version in a new tab.)
The four-way adjustable sprayer simplifies feeding by attaching to your regular garden hose, and you add customized fertilizer tablets to feed your plants the exact amount of nutrients they need. To use it, you twist off the clear sprayer canister, load one or two water-soluble fertilizer tablets into the sprayer, and spray your target area. There are three different formulas for whatever applications you need fertilizer for: All-Purpose; Tomato & Vegetable; and Flowers & Blooms. Pennington Smart Feed products are available at national home retailers and range from $9.99-$12.99.
You might harvest so much from your healthy plants that you need a few new ways to eat your veggies! One of the best-yielding veggies from our Michigan garden was always zucchini, which is one of my favorites. But you can only eat so much steamed with a hint of butter and salt… so when I was growing up, this zucchini bread recipe was a staple at the height of the season.
It’s one that really holds fond memories for me. I do hope you enjoy it, and good luck in your garden!
- 3 eggs
- 2 c. sugar
- 1 c. vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
- 3 c, grated zucchini (usually equal to one enormous zucchini from the garden, or two average grocery-store sized zucchinis)
- 3 c. flour
- 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp, ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- Preheat oven to 350F and lightly spray 2 loaf pans with cooking spray.
- Beat together eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Stir in grated zucchini.
- In a separate bowl, sift together your remaining dry ingredients, then beat them into your wet mixture until well-mixed.
- Pour into two loaf pans and bake for 55-65 minutes. (You can check for doneness with the toothpick test.)
- Cool fully, slice and serve. You can also freeze extra bread if you're trying to use up LOTS of zucchini!
If you’d like to know a little more about Pennington or AMDRO products for your gardening, you have a chance this Thursday to connect at the AMDRO PowerFlex and Pennington Smart Feed Twitter Party! AMDRO and The Divine Miss Mommy host on April 25 at 3 PM EST. Anyone may join in the fun – just RSVP and attend, and you’ve got the chance to win some great prizes! RSVP here and get more info about how to participate!
Central Garden & Pet partnered with bloggers such as me to help educate us all about their Pennington products. As part of this program, I received compensation. They did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about the use of the products. Central Garden & Pet believes that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. Central Garden & Pet’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.
Kristy says
YUM! I love zucchini anything!!!
Kara says
Looks awesome! I love zucchini bread!!
Carolyn says
I love the garden story.. what is your secret to the bread ? every time I make bread it’s all mushy in the middle. or dryed out on the out side. I use clear glass bread pans.
Adrianne says
In my family, I learned to pay attention to smell to know when things are close to done. It’s something you have to kind of get the hang of. But I use the baking time on the recipe as a guide – 10 minutes before it’s done, it should start to smell sweet. This is the time when it starts making your house smell really yummy. :) But that’s when you start checking it, and i just poke it with a toothpick, and see if I’m still getting batter or if it’s coming out clean. Then I check it every 3-5 minutes.
The thing is with baking, is the weather and your elevation will always affect the baking time. Baking on a rainy day is different than baking on a nice day – the pressure will make a difference! So just keep an eye on any baked goods when the estimated time gets close, and go by the bread itself rather than the time on the recipe. I hope that helps!!
Tara says
I have little zucchini sprouts waiting to move into their garden beds. I love zucchini bread (especially when warm and with a bit slathering of butter).
Your dad sounds like an extremely interesting man (in that small snippet I read about him). How cool that you had a community garden while growing up!
Monsterscircus says
Oh your bread looks so moist and irrisistable! Thank you so much for the inspiration, have a happy week dear Adrianne!
Melanie says
This looks great! I hope to have time to garden next season!
Kadie says
I just planted zucchini this weekend! I can’t wait till I have some big enough to make bread with, zucchini bread is one of my favorite things! I’ll be trying out your recipe for sure.:) I need to look into the smart feeder for my plants!
Marilyn says
Adrianne, my family LOVES zucchini bread….definitely somethings I make TONS of in july/august and freeze to enjoy later (and of course enjoy at the time too)
amy says
Oh, yum! I love zucchini bread! What a neat story about your dad and his community garden too.
eva scott says
I love zucchini yet have never made zucchini bread. Thanks for this recipe. I’ll definitely give it a try this week. A great way to sneak in those vegetables to my kiddos. :-)