Zucchini is the least appreciated member of the plant kingdom. It is the Rodney Dangerfield of the vegetable world for, instead of respect, it receives only ridicule and scorn from all who grow it in their gardens.
Every August, I see baskets filled to overflowing with zucchini, baskets by the side of the road with signs attached pleading, "Take some, PLEASE!"
Zucchini is the very last in an alphabetical list of vegetables. It has no real taste of its own, piggybacking on whatever it is prepared with. No one ever hated zucchini when they were a kid the way a former president hated broccoli. Zucchini is simply too humble and self-effacing to have strong feelings about.
However, it's low in calories and contains useful amounts of potassium, folate and Vitamin A with a dash of magnesium thrown in for good measure. But you've got to eat zucchini to get the benefits.
Zucchini has a long history. It came originally from Italy, and its name is a diminutive of "zucca," the Italian word for squash. In the rest of Europe, it is called "courgette," which means squash in French.
Zucchini first appeared in the United States in California in 1920s, probably brought by Italian immigrants. From there, zucchini spread across the country, vine by vine. The secret of zucchini is its flowers. They are edible and are used as garnish in high-class restaurants, which like to show how sophisticated they are. Zucchini, to be on the safe side, has both male and female flowers, which are eaten raw.
Each year in August, the city of Hayward puts on a two-day Zucchini Festival to celebrate the region's most abundant, versatile and underrated vegetable. Zucchini is for sale in all its many manifestations: there's deep-fried, boiled, baked, battered, stuffed, and sautéed zucchini, zucchini bread, muffins, cake, fritters, soup, burgers, wine and even ice cream, should you have a hankering.
There are zucchini-carving contests, a Zucchini Queen and prizes for the largest zucchini and the most unusually shaped zucchini. You can buy yourself or a loved one a T-shirt embellished with the slogan "Zucchini or Die" or "I Love Zucchini."
Patricia Littlefield, a Newcastle resident, has written for several newspapers, including one on Oahu and two on the Big Island when she lived in Hawaii.
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