In the old days, when I'd whip up a big batch of spaghetti sauce, I'd add a pound or so of ground beef and a generous portion of hot Italian sausage. But that was B. C. (before cholesterol). Nowadays, it's all vegetarian. Not nearly as tasty, but acceptable — and appropriate, in its blandness, to these latter days. To enrich the meatless mixture, I add a couple of cuisinarted carrots and a grated zucchini or two.
At our local food market, a 6" zucchini costs $1.00. An entire buck. I'm not usually one to complain about the price of things. It's not helpful or cheerful to do so. I pay the freight and and I'm glad to be able to do so. I don't grieve about the cost of cars or insurance or potatoes. Nevertheless, I'm appalled when I plunk down that dollar for a short, skinny zucchini.
The zucchini is an abundant fruit. Production is measured in cornucopias. In August and September, at harvest time, it's impossible to keep up with them. Just two small hills and there are so many zucchinis that we can't possibly eat them, can't give them away, and have to get out the backhoe and dig a trench to dispose of them. (In our part of Vermont, there's a local saying that in late summer you must keep the door of your car locked or someone will open it up and throw in a zucchini.) And then there's always the hidden zuke that, hiding under an enormous leaf, has grown to the size of a three-year-old child, only heavier.
I know that it shouldn't be so, but that dollar for a measly little zucchini irks me.
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