Multiple varieties of summer squash are available at the Tesch Family Farms table at the Bakersfield Farmers’ Market, 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays at Golden State Mall. Photo by Jeff Nachtigal

Loquats are small, sweet fruits most commonly found in back yards rather than grocery stores. Photo by Michelle Beck

By Michelle Beck

Summertime is squash time. If you’ve ever grown zucchini, you can probably relate to the old cartoons where people leave sacks of zucchini on the their neighbors’ porches in the middle of the night. Zucchini plants are very prolific (I need an understatement font here) and it can quickly become a challenge to find recipes in which to use them.

Zucchini and other summer squashes

Summer squash comes in a variety of shapes and colors. They can be dark green, light green, yellow, yellow with green accents and different shades in between. They can be straight-necked, crook-necked, round like a ball, and in the case of pattypan squash, UFO-shaped.

Summer squash has a mild flavor, and can be used in many different ways. Of course, I like it sauteed with onion and added to eggs. Zucchini can be watery, so I dice it into small pieces, cook until it releases its water, then finish cooking it until the water burns off. It’s very good with parmesan or asiago cheese. Zucchini frittata would also make a nice dinner, accompanied by a tomato salad.

Years ago, one of the farmers at the Farmer’s Market told me to cut pattypan squash in half, top with a slice of onion and swiss cheese, then bake until tender.

Those boat-like zucchini you discover in the garden when returning from vacation can have a tough texture, so this stuffed zucchini is a good way to use them. This Tex-mex stuffed squash recipe calls for crookneck squash, but any summer squash could be used, even pattypan.

Summer squash is great on the barbecue, or roasted in a hot (450 degree) oven. Just drizzle first with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, or whatever seasonings you like. This roasted zucchini, onion and pepper recipe is another good way to prepare summer vegetables.

Zucchini is also very good in baked goods, such as bread and cookies. It can be a sneaky way to include more vegetables in the diet of a picky eater. Either pineapple-zucchini bread or chocolate-zucchini bread would be great with a glass of milk, and zucchini-chocolate chip cookies would make a good afternoon snack. Betty Crocker has a great gluten-free chocolate zucchini snack recipe here.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Tesch Farms has had green tomatoes on their tables at the Bakersfield Farmer’s Market (Golden State Mall, 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays) lately, so I decided to finally try a recipe that has intrigued me, fried green tomatoes. This recipe calls for double-dredging the tomatoes, which makes for a very crisp crust. To make them gluten-free for me, I just substituted rice flour for the regular flour, with no difference in flavor. We had them with a little ranch dressing on the side. They are definitely not health food, but made a great treat.

Loquats and mulberries

Yes, those things are edible. Loquats are one of the fruits I classify as “backyard treasures” because I have never seen them in a supermarket. Loquats are small orange fruit that grows in clusters on a tree. Loquat trees are found all over Bakersfield. When I was a kid, we would sit on a wall, eating them from a neighbor’s tree. We peeled them, which is a giant pain, but it turns out the skin is edible. There’s not much to a loquat, as it has big seeds in the center and not much flesh, but they are very sweet. Loquats can be used in a variety of recipes, if you can save any from the birds and hungry, wall-climbing neighbor kids.

You can find a variety of loquat ideas here and here. This loquat salsa sounds so good, I may have to make a trip back to the old neighborhood, and see if the tree is still there.

Mulberry trees abound in Bakersfield. They are the trees that so often are whacked back into a stump every fall by ill-informed homeowners. Many of those trees are actually fruitless mulberries, chosen because mulberry trees are prolific, and the dark purple fruit can make a mess. If you have a fruit-bearing tree, however, try picking some of the fruit instead of letting it fall on the ground. I bought some white mulberries, which I had never seen before, from Flossie Fay Farms at the Bakersfield Farmer’s Market last week. Since mulberries are considered something of a nuisance here, I was surprised to find this site, which has enough mulberry recipes to keep you busy for the next millennium.

On the topic of edible backyard plants, I should point out that if you have an olive tree, resist the urge to pick one and pop one in your mouth. (Or don’t resist, but first invite me over to laugh at you.) The olives available in the store are cured; the ones directly from the tree are very bitter.

Sunscreen

From the department of things-that-are-supposed-to-help-you-but-are-secretly-harmful, it turns out that an ingredient in some sunscreens may actually accelerate the possibility of skin cancer. Here’s an article explaining the problem. Lassen’s carries many of the safe sunscreens mentioned in the article.

Yogurt Maker

Some of the women from one of my online groups (we like the Beany Malone book series) were discussing yogurt makers the other day. I had never heard of such a thing, and now I am fascinated. This is an appliance I may have to have. I found a variety of brands and prices, but they all look pretty similar to this one.