What to Do With Too Much Zucchini (Ann Arbor CSA Overload Guide)

If you’ve opened your CSA box this week and found three, four, or five zucchini staring back at you, welcome to the most predictable moment of the Michigan growing season. Zucchini season runs mid-July through September around Washtenaw County, and by the end of July the plants have hit their stride — a single healthy zucchini plant can produce multiple pounds of squash a week, which is why “what do I do with all this zucchini” is the most-searched CSA question of the summer.

Here’s how to actually keep up with it.

Why It All Comes at Once

Zucchini plants don’t ease into production — they ramp up fast and then don’t stop. Once a plant starts flowering, a single zucchini can go from finger-sized to oversized in just a day or two if you miss checking it. That’s part of why CSA boxes and garden harvests feel like they go from “a couple of zucchini” to “an alarming pile” within the space of a week. If you’re a member of a CSA like Tantre Farm or Community Farm of Ann Arbor, expect zucchini to keep showing up in the box through most of August.

Cook It Down Fast

The easiest way to keep pace is to turn zucchini into something that uses a lot of it at once. Zucchini and Corn Fritters and Zucchini & Corn Griddle Cakes both use a full zucchini or two per batch and pair it with sweet corn, which is hitting its own peak right now — so it’s a good way to work through two overflowing crops in one dish. If you’d rather keep things simple, Grilled Zucchini with Feta & Fresh Herbs takes about 15 minutes and works as a side for almost anything off the grill.

Bake With the Oversized Ones

Every zucchini patch eventually produces the one that hid under a leaf and grew to baseball-bat size. Those are usually too seedy and watery to sauté well, but they’re perfect for baking — grate them and the excess water and big seeds mostly disappear into the batter. Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze is built exactly for this and freezes well if you end up with more loaves than you can eat in a week.

Make It Part of Dinner, Not a Side Project

If fritters and quick breads still aren’t keeping up, work zucchini into a main dish so it’s not an extra thing to cook. Grilled Chicken with Corn and Zucchini Succotash turns a full dinner into a way to use up zucchini, corn, and green beans — three of the crops most likely to be piling up in your kitchen right now — in one pan plus the grill.

When All Else Fails, Freeze It

Zucchini doesn’t freeze well raw (it turns watery and limp once thawed), but grated and portioned zucchini freezes fine for baking later — measure it into the amount your favorite bread or muffin recipe calls for, freeze flat in a bag, and thaw straight into the batter in October when the plants are long done. It’s the simplest way to bank a few weeks of overload against a winter craving for zucchini bread.

Zucchini season has another month or so left in it. Pick a couple of these to keep in rotation and the pile stops feeling like a problem.