One of my favorite non-fiction books is Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. She is a beautiful writer. I was mesmerized as she journeyed through a year of eating locally. It’s something I fantasize about trying. However, since I have zero gardening skills, I don’t think I would be as successful as she was eating only foods grown myself or purchased from local farmers. Other than tomatoes and the occasional herb, I have limited knowledge on how I would actually feed myself.
I did consider jumping into the backyard chicken trend when we first moved back to Maine but then I remembered that we own a lab. My understanding is labs and chickens don’t always play nicely. It’s the whole retriever thing. While I might have been able to train my dog to “leave it” when it came to the chickens, overall it seemed too stressful especially for a novice chicken wrangler like me.
Even though I am not great at growing or raising food, I do try to swap out local options over something trucked in whenever possible. I even joined my first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for the upcoming summer season. I am excited about it and will post more on my experiences with the CSA once the season gears up.
Anyway, it’s been many years since I read her book so much of the detail has faded. But, one thing that I distinctly remember is that when zucchini is in season there is A LOT of zucchini. You get sick of it quickly and are always looking for new recipes to use up this abundant crop.
Although zucchini season doesn’t generally hit Maine until September, it doesn’t hurt to get a jump on ways to use this plentiful vegetable. While I need to do more research on recipes I can try at home, there are also some options in Maine for locally produced foods that incorporate zucchini.
Recently, I found a local salsa made with, you guessed it, zucchini. I was going to include this post in my A to Z Blogging Challenge as it fit with my Made in Maine theme, but there were so many amazing Maine made products that I ended up having an overflow of choices and used Good Natured Brand for my G post instead.
My husband is a big fan of chips and salsa. We were excited to find a local option as we continue to migrate towards buying more locally produced foods. Established in 2010, Galaxie Salsa has a variety of salsa flavors available. Keeping with the classic car theme, they all have fun names including:
Real Classic (Original)
Sweet Ride (Peach)
Kruisin’ Berry (Blueberry)
Pellin’ Out (Apple)
Red Roof Hot (Habanero Pepper)
One Tire Fire (Habanero and Scorpion Pepper)
They can be found in many grocery and specialty food stores throughout the state. We bought the salsa at Bow Street Market in Freeport. We love blueberry anything so we went with the Kruisin’ Berry flavor. The description from the Galaxie Salsa Co. webiste reads:
“The newest addition to the GALAXIE family, Kruisin’ Berry combines delicious MAINE blueberries with the subtle heat of jalapeno peppers to create a “sweet heat” burst of flavor you wont put down! We rate it a MEDIUM + heat because of the jalapenos, but let your taste buds tell you what to think 🙂 It’s Yum!”
We enjoyed it with local tortilla chips from Montecito Roadhouse during a fun Friday night when we did our informal blueberry wine tasting in preparation of my A to Z post Y is for Younity Wine | Want to try a blueberry wine? You’ve come to the right state.
We didn’t really plan on the double blueberry theme with both the wine and salsa but it worked. The salsa was a hit. It disappeared quickly and now we have a new use for zucchini.
Do you have a good recipe for zucchini? Have you ever tried it in a salsa?
| things to know | |
|---|---|
| Name | Galaxie Salsa Co. |
| Location | 62 Webster Road, Buxton, Maine 04093 |
| galaxiesalsa@yahoo.com | |
| Website | Galaxie Salsa Co. |
| Favorite ♥ | Another use for zucchini! |
Weekends in Maine 
Isn’t the Bow Street market the best? While reading this I’m eating zucchini stir fried with shrimp. The salsa sounds like an interesting option.
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I love it there! They have so many great, local options and I always find something fun to try.
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John just bought me a spiralizer. It is a hand held one and quite exhausting after a while. Then I hand it over to John to finish whatever we are spiralizing. Zucchini is brilliant as is carrot. Other vegetables like turnip and potato have to be cut into a zucchini like shape to work so I haven’t tried them. In hindsight the electric one might have been better but it is good exercise for my wrists and hands. The spaghetti like shape that comes out is appealing to adults and children alike.
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I’ve never tried a spiralizer but it sounds like fun. I bet the end result is really appealing and I can see where zucchini would be a great vegetable to use with it.
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Zucchini salsa…I’ll have to let my dad know. There really is always far more zucchini than anyone knows what to do with.
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It is a plentiful vegetable.
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Organically grown zucchini is available for many months here in CA at a pretty cheap price (around $1.50 per lb.) so it’s a good staple veggie to pick up on every shopping trip. It can also be a nice sustainable crop – especially when grown with other plants, like the “three sisters” of corn, zucchini, and beans. For savory prep, it does well when just sliced down the middle (lengthwise) and seared in a little olive oil and then seasoned. But my favorite use of them is zucchini loaf 🙂 I follow Maida Heatter’s recipe (you can find it here: http://tastyfix.com/recipe/maida-heatter-s-zucchini-loaf-food) – it uses a surprisingly large amount of zucchini (2 cups per loaf) so it’s a good way to use zucchini when in season.
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I’m looking forward to trying the zucchini loaf recipe. It looks yummy. Thanks for sharing. The sliced down the middle and seared in a little olive oil / seasoned option is usually how we eat it too. It’s great on the grill in the summer.
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Zucchini is one of those veggies I like, but can never quite figure out what to do with other than the one or two staple recipes I use it in. I will have to check out zucchini salsa 🙂 And possibly the book you referenced. Like you, I don’t think I’d last long feeding myself, but am open to small steps to support more local growers.
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I highly recommend the book. Even if you’re not ready to dive into exclusively local food, which would be me although I try to do as much as I can, it’s still a beautifully written book. I enjoyed it a lot.
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