Zucchini Coffee Cake
This moist, delicious breakfast cake is a perfect way to use up extra zucchini from the season, not to mention it's delicious with coffee. Recipe by Whitney Reist of Sweet Cayenne.
Bumper Crop: Zucchini
The revival of an old family farm yields lessons aplenty... and zucchini
Our most recent road trip to our family farm in East Tennessee brought on a whole new experience in this magical place – farming! The land has not been used for farming (with the exception of my mom’s flourishing vegetable gardens) since we’ve enjoyed the property for over 20 years, but due to some invasive species growth, my mom and I met with a local farmer last year to “rent” out some of our land to grow crops.
Over the course of the year, we witnessed the farmers and field hands clear the fields of all the invasive plants that were taking over (to reveal lush, beautiful soil), plant and weed the fields, and finally, pick the harvest. The best part: we got to pick ourselves! I love that my girls get to witness how food is grown; they get to observe the fields grow and produce – from seed to plant. They get to hear and interact with the workers who whistle songs and wave as they pick and haul truckloads of fresh produce to stores in the southeast – right from our very own farm! My mom likes to tell them we are playing a small part in feeding the world.
There are beehives that have been brought in to pollinate the crops and if you quietly stand among the fields, you can hear the hum of the bees doing their own work. There is an irrigation system that brings water from different sources on the farm that the girls and their dad inspect and discuss how it works. The crops extend as far as the eye can see and the hunt for the perfect zucchini brings the girls’ tons of laughter – and a bit of healthy competition. It also brings a desire to taste their harvest in new ways. My middle even happily munched on fresh raw zucchini in the middle of the fields while picking.
Most of the fields are zucchini, but there is some yellow squash and cucumber, too. Once the girls had nonchalantly picked about 10 pounds of zucchini in less than an hour, we started to look for recipes! Over the next 3 days, we made zucchini fritters, chocolate zucchini cake, sauteed zucchini and tomatoes, pasta carbonara with zucchini, stuffed zucchini blossoms, roasted zucchini, and zucchini bread.
Try this recipe for zucchini coffee cake and check out new and interesting recipes using zucchini at ediblenashville.com. We hope you enjoy the creative exploration as much as we have.
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