From beans to zucchini, it's harvest time.....

Serve beans in oil and vinegar dressing, use zucchini in baked goods

By Helen Chesnut, Victoria Times Colonist

So abruptly the season changed. I'm swimming in the ocean under hot sunshine on Monday and donning sweaters while assessing the firewood supply the next day.

At the same time last week, familiar markers popped out of the ground to signal the transition from summer. The first colchicums began to bloom. Like crocuses on steroids, their outsized flowers greet the shift in weather with cheerful aplomb.

Fall has now officially begun. For me, the season has always felt like a fresh start as I eagerly anticipate the Great Outdoor Cleaning Project.

But first, because of the late growing season this year, harvesting remains an almost full-time occupation. The prune plums, usually picked late August and early September, have been slow to ripen.

Late summer apples require processing, and from speaking with and hearing from other gardeners, many of us are awash in beans.

I've been more than pleased with the heritage Lazy Housewife pole beans, tender and buttery, and Emerite, a French filet pole bean, has delivered its usual fine harvest.

The bush beans have provided more good, colourful eating.

Velour is a tasty purple filet bean, Thibodeau du Compte Beauce is a lovely purple-streaked green bean. Capitano is a broad, flat, Romano bean in bright yellow, and Alicante, a longtime favourite gourmet French bean, continues bearing slim, delicately flavoured pods.

Combining the lightly steamed, cut beans with red peppers and onion in a honey-sweetened oil and vinegar dressing is a fast and easy way to use beans.

Leftovers in the fridge are handy, too.

Then there's the issue of dealing with ever so slightly overgrown zucchini.

To save freezer space, I've been grating some to lightly steam, cool, package and freeze.

I've grated more to use in two recipes I recently found in an old cook book. One is a herb cornbread, another a wonderfully moist chocolate cake.

To make the chocolate cake, first melt four ounces unsweetened chocolate and 1/2 cup oil in a small saucepan over hot water.

Cream 1/2 cup room-temperature butter, add 1 1/4 cups sugar, three eggs, and one tablespoon vanilla. Beat well and add the melted chocolate and oil.

Mix together two cups all-purpose, unbleached flour with 1/3 cup cocoa, two teaspoons each baking soda and baking powder, and one teaspoon salt.

Stir into the batter along with 1/3 cup buttermilk (or sour cream). Add three cups coarsely grated zucchini and 1/2 cup chopped nuts.

Bake in oiled bundt pan for 40 minutes at 350 F, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Ice with cream cheese frosting or, my personal, easy favourite, whipped cream, plain or with a little chocolate sauce added.
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