Teenage Squash

Boy, you just can't leave the vegetable garden alone for one day. If you do, watch out! Those vegetables grow from babies to troublesome teenagers overnight. Then you have to deal with them--strictly and lovingly.

Before we left for a long weekend, i grated up 10 big summer squash. I came home four days later find 5 more sizable squash.

Strict yet loving-accepting parenting forecasts the best outcome for teens. Overbalancing on one or the other spells trouble.

How do we walk this line in our own daily lives?

We are not following an "If it feels good, do it" path or an "If it feels good, then it must be right" path. That's too much acceptance.

On the other hand, we are not forcing ourselves to meditate for 60 minutes at four o'clock in the morning, no matter what. That's too strict and makes the body (and mind) contract.

We practice kindness, yet we also have to make an effort. We aim for a consistency of practice, about the same length of time (even if that's "only" 5 minutes) at about the same time every day.

Now i have make some more effort at harvesting summer squash. Maybe i'll practice kindness, to myself, by giving them away.

Too Much Squash

I harvested 10 large summer squash last evening. Then, since we're going away for a long weekend, i grated them all in the food processor and froze them in baggies.

10 large squash are unpleasant. Actually, the squash themselves are pleasant, but the thought, "What the heck am i going to do with all this?" is unpleasant.

We could grumble and complain and thereby perpetuate the unpleasant, but that just makes us grumpy.

The Buddha suggests we recognize unwholesome mind states and end them.
He also suggests we give rise to wholesome mind states and figure out how to continue those.

So how can we give rise to a wholesome or skillful mind state around 10 BIG summer squash?
(Your suggestions are appreciated.)

1. Give them away (and thereby practice generosity).
2. Put them in the neighbors' mailboxes and get an additional chuckle.
3. Grate them, as i did, and freeze for winter localvoring. 
4. Throw them away. There. That was way too easy. Done. And your compost pile will be so happy.

Here's my favorite recipe for grated summer squash or zucchini:

Blond Brownies
Mix:

• 1/3 cup canola or coconut oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Then add:

• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• dash of salt

After mixing, add:

• 1 cup grated zucchini or summer squash, drain and squeeze all the water out
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup walnuts 

Turn into a greased 8x8 pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Photos from vegetablegardener.com and ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com