Zucchini.

There. I said it.

The mere mention of the word most likely sent a few dozen of even the most hardened gardeners fleeing from the room.

The poor lowly, vining vegetable typically enjoys an enthusiastic reception until, well, right about now. Those first small, tender, reasonably sized fruits have been harvested and used in our favorite recipes. But the calendar’s turned to August, and so now we’re all lost in the land of zucchini. Baseball bat-sized zucchini, that is.

This is the time of year when the true degree of our Yankee ingenuity shines through. Just how many dishes can one make with that dear, tender green vegetable? We’ve seen it all, haven’t we? Zucchini served raw, steamed, fried, baked. In casseroles, soups, breads and even – if fortified with enough brown sugar and cinnamon – in tasty cookies. Surely gardeners out there have a whole host of outrageous recipes that turn the ever-so-common, overly abundant fruit of the vine into delectable and unusual meals.

Undoubtedly, zucchini is among the easiest and most prolific garden vegetables. Nothing could be simpler than putting the pale yellow seeds in the earth, watering them a time or two and sitting back to let nature run its full course from seed to mature fruit. While the life cycles of some garden vegetables cause the gardener to wait until frost is just about to threaten the crop before they yield their produce, zucchini completes the cycle from seed to mature fruit in about 50 days.

Horticulturally speaking, zucchini is classified as a summer squash. These squashes produce in abundance but have little storage life. While they do not have the storage longevity of their cousins the winter squashes, they surely do hold an important place in the diet. These squashes are jam-packed with healthful nutrients. Though they do not store in the root cellar, they are easily blanched in hot water and stored for winter’s use in the freezer.

Zucchini is most often grown in “hills” formed by mounding soil 6 or 8 inches high and 2 to 3 feet across. Several seeds may be dropped into several holes made on the top of the mound as soon as the soil is warm in spring. Germination takes place in just a few warm days. Vines quickly grow, producing large green leaves. Vines of most modern cultivars will easily reach 6 to 8 feet in length by the middle of summer if adequate rainfall and nutrition needs have been met.

Occasionally zucchini vines will fall prey to powdery mildew, a fungal disease that appears on the leaves and, in severe cases, affects stems of the vine. Infected leaves typically are coated with a silvery powder substance which, in isolated cases, has no effect on productivity and which, in more extreme cases, may extinguish the plant completely.

Chances are the following recipe won’t even make a dent in your zucchini crop, but it’s an interesting and tasty breakfast or luncheon dish, nonetheless.

Zucchini and Egg Fritters

Makes 12 fritters

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon salt

4 to 6 spring onions

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1 cup zucchini, shredded

5 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup finely chopped fresh

parsley

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint

Scramble eggs in a large bowl. Add crushed garlic, salt, spring onions, pepper and spices. Add shredded zucchini. Beat well for one minute with beater. Add and thoroughly mix flour. Add parsley and mint.

Spoon fritter batter into a pan of hot vegetable oil and cook until golden brown on each side.

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, 512 North Ridge Road, Montville 04941, or e-mail dianagc@midcoast.com. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.