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Genius is occasionally driven by desperation, and
that’s what happened to Annette down at the Soup ‘R Market.
The phone lines were fuzzy that day, she thinks, because of an
electrical storm. That’s the only reason she can think of that she
was stuck with 800 pounds of squash. She thought she was ordering 80
pounds, you see, but there was static … oh well….
So the banner went up across the front of the market. It was so
thick you had to duck under it to get in the store. “Giant Squash
Recipe Contest,” it read.
This was fascinating, because science and mothers have been trying
for centuries to make squash edible to normal human beings. Some
thought it wasn’t possible, but those folks probably think we didn’t
land on the moon, either. In most of us there is this innate belief
that someone will someday make squash into an edible vegetable.
Of course, we’ve been wrong before.
To enter Annette’s giant squash recipe contest, you had to first
register at the store, and then pick out the kind of squash you want
to transform into food. Then you bring the completed dish in on
Saturday at 11 a.m., along with the recipe all written out. The
entries would be tasted by blindfolded locals whose wives had
volunteered them for the task.
By Tuesday the squash began being sold so fast that Annette’s kid
had to continually bring more from the back of the store to refill
the bins.
Zuccini was a favorite, closely followed by crookneck.
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On Saturday, quite a crowd had gathered, because it
turned out that many of the local cooks thought their family recipe
could turn gourds into a meal. The blindfolded judges were unanimous
in picking Carla Martinez’s squash dish, which had enough chile in
it to disguise brunch at Lucretia Borgia’s. After the applause,
Carla proudly drove home with her prize: one hundred pounds of
squash.
We sure have fun around here.
[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
To meet people who
seriously grow and eat squash, try PollinatorParadise.com.
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