Baking from the Garden: Zucchini Bread

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!

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Baking from the Garden: Zucchini Bread

 

Author:

Happy Hour Projects

Serves: 24

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

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Ingredients

• 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

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly spray 2 loaf pans with cooking spray.
2. Beat together eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Stir in grated zucchini.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together your remaining dry ingredients, then beat them into your wet mixture until well-mixed.
4. Pour into two loaf pans and bake for 55-65 minutes. (You can check for doneness with the toothpick test.)
5. Cool fully, slice and serve. You can also freeze extra bread if you're trying to use up LOTS of zucchini!

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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!

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