If you take that foot long or bigger zucchini, split it length wise, scoop out the pulp with an ice cream scoop, and use a small knife to perforate the zuke meat to the skin, salt it lightly, and then fill the cavity heaping with your meatloaf mix, heaping, and put in a pan with a 3/4" of water in it, put that in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or longer, you have a wonderful meal. The two of us eat two dinners out of one zuke, and have half the meatloaf mix, raw, frozen to fill the next bear beater zuke. We are done with zukes, however, due to an invasion of powdery mildew which has stopped all the melons from growing, including pumpkins. Vast fields of white leafed pumpkin plants now. All that Sept. rain. The tomatoes got a clear plastic tent or teepee built over them when the rain was forecast, and we are getting nice red ones every day, even with overcast here in the Willametty Valley, home to the rain gnomes. My garden mistake was planting two cucumber plants, and having a zucchini experience with cukes. That, and never finding the time to make and freeze pesto..all the basil bolting early and hard. I did plant a heritage tomato I got at the spring farmer's market, and was too dumb to recognize that even though the top of them were striated with green color, the bottoms were blood red and ripe. So I lost a few until I got smart. They turned out too sweet for my taste. But great slicers, and worked with cottage cheese.

On the other hand, the blueberry farm I manage has had a banner year in the fresh market end. We somehow beat the averages for production by a bunch, and my conversation with the owner this morning was about the need to fall farm, control weeds, foliar feeding to pump up nutrition in the roots as the leaves start to turn, winterizing the irrigation system, and how can we do that if we still have green fruit that might size and turn in the next week or two. The disaster in South America with unseasonable snows, freezes, and the same in New Zealand, where more than 500,000 spring lambs died in the last two weeks, has resulted in no early blueberries from South of the Equator, and grand prices for late North American varieties into the US and world fresh markets. Global climate change has made the southern hemisphere record setting cold in 2008 and now 2010. That has made US fresh market late season farmers a lot of money in the last three years. Now I see Alaska is setting early fall record low temps. Climate change is noticeable at the poles. Shortest ice free season since satellites in the Arctic. Ice accretion began on Sept. 10th. Go, La Nina, go!!!!

ng was about the need to fall farm, control weeds, foliar feeding to pump up nutrition in the roots as the leaves start to turn, winterizing the irrigation system, and how can we do that if we still have green fruit that might size and turn in the next week or two. The disaster in South America with unseasonable snows, freezes, and the same in New Zealand, where more than 500,000 spring lambs died in the last two weeks, has resulted in no early blueberries from South of the Equator, and grand prices for late North American varieties into the US and world fresh markets. Global climate change has made the southern hemisphere record setting cold in 2008 and now 2010. That has made US fresh market late season farmers a lot of money in the last three years. Now I see Alaska