On a hot summer day long ago, my dad warned me not to leave my car’s windows open when I parked in front of the house.
“Why not? No one’s going to steal this piece of junk.”
“Yes, but the people around here with gardens will leave zucchini in your back seat.”
Prolific stuff, zucchini. See the giant plants in the picture below, over there to the right? That’s our zucchini. Since we’re only sitting on five acres here in the middle of Tennessee, Chareva decided to try a technique called “square-foot gardening” … you know, the kind of garden people grow in little back yards or on rooftops in urban areas. I understand the rationale, but the zucchini has apparently responded to the tight quarters by launching a hostile takeover of the garden.
I wouldn’t mind seeing so many zucchini exploding from the garden if half of them weren’t as big as my leg. Chareva’s determined to make use of them and is already sounding a bit like Bubba talking about shrimp in Forrest Gump: “Zucchini salad, zucchini stew, boiled zucchini, fried zucchini, zucchini noodles, zucchini pancakes …”
For lunch today, I had zucchini stuffed with sausage and cheese. For dinner, I had zucchini stuffed with sausage and cheese. I’m probably going to find zucchini stuffed with something in my lunch-bag at work tomorrow. Fortunately, zucchini stuffed with sausage and cheese is delicious. Someone asked for the recipe last week in comments, so I’ll include it at the end of this post. Not much to it, really.
The other foods we’ve started harvesting from the garden so far are green beans, sugar-snap peas, parsley and basil – all of which are (for now) a safe distance from the zucchini. Later in the year, we hope to be harvesting butternut squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, carrots, sweet corn, cantaloupe and tomatoes. (No, I didn’t ask for the sweet corn. It was the Chief Gardener’s idea.)
Maybe it’s just the satisfaction of knowing that we grew them ourselves (and by “we” of I course mean “Chareva”), but the sugar-snap peas and green beans taste crisper and juicier to me than their store-bought cousins. The zucchini is good too, even though I’m afraid we’ll soon be looking for open car windows to offload some of our supply.
The chickens are getting bigger by the day, and at least one of them started laying little mini-eggs. Nothing inside yet, so I guess chickens get the hang of making the shells first then learn to fill them later. They’re supposed to be laying full-sized eggs in early autumn. If we end up overloaded with eggs, I doubt we’ll have to sneak them into unlocked cars. We have neighbors who would no doubt volunteer to take those off our hands.
The ferocious guard dogs are getting bigger by the day as well. It’s gotten to the point that when they charge into the kitchen to maul me with affection, they can almost knock me over.
The only downside of living on a mini-farm during the summer growing season is the ticks. I don’t know how many live on our land, but at least one manages to attach itself to me pretty much every time I go out and spend an hour or so playing frisbee golf. I used to make the mistake of coming inside, tossing my clothes on the bed, then taking a shower. I learned my lesson after going to bed tick-free and waking up with one of the little @#$%ers digging into the side of my knee.
Now whenever I come back in after spending time outside, I go straight to the laundry room in the basement and remove every stitch of clothing before walking upstairs. Last week, Chareva was tossing some of my clothes into the washer and tick jumped from the clothes onto her arm.
Our original flock of guinea fowl – the designated hit men for the ticks – ran off, so we’ve got another on the way. This time we’ll make sure they’re raised in a pen outside and get used to the place before they can get loose and wander around. I want the tick-eaters to consider this their home. I’d happily put Guinness in their water dispenser on Saturday nights if they’d promise not to leave.
Now about that recipe …
Chareva’s Kitchen: Stuffed Zucchini
Cut zucchini in half and scoop out the insides. Salt and pepper the zucchini boat.
Cook up some sausage.
Spoon in salsa, fresh chopped basil, chopped mushrooms, then add the browned crumbled sausage.
Top with mozzarella or cheese of your choice.
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown.
I know what you’re thinking: but what the heck do I do with the zucchini I scooped out? Well, don’t let it go to waste. Chareva fried some zucchini slices in the sausage grease today then sprinkled on some Parmesan and sea salt. It was delicious. Great little zucchini side dish to go with the zucchini main course.
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Why don’t you get some Guineafowls?
They seems to eat all sorts of bugs including ticks.
http://www.lymediseasepa.com/GuineaHens.htm
They’re on order, should arrive next week.
Cut zucchini and yellow squash into chunks, cook in tomato sauce.
Tom,
This looks good, will give it a try…
Here is an interesting article…Disney is dropping their junk food ads…
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/disney-ban-junk-food-ads-kids-america-struggles-165346887.html
“Parents can be confident that foods associated with Disney characters or advertised on Disney platforms meet our new, healthier nutrition guidelines.”
I can’t wait to see what they consider healthy…and will it make its way into the theme parks too?
Here’s what the announcement says:
“Disney says it will introduce something called “Mickey Check” in grocery stores, which are Disney-licensed products that meet certain limits on calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugar.”
So they got one right.
I’m glad your garden and chickens are doing so well. We haven’t had as much luck with our garden this year due to our chickens. We let them out during the day (I would wait until yours are about 6 months old before trying to do that), and they have destroyed the garden. We have an electric fence, but it doesn’t faze them a bit. My husband didn’t want to spend more money on a regular fence, so they’ve been getting in there and eating everything. All my cucumber plants and pepper plants are gone. They ate a bunch of the yellow squash flowers, so we haven’t had any squash. Oh, and they ate all of my cabbage and lettuce, too. Can’t have a garden with chickens on the loose. We chase them out all the time, but it doesn’t help. We put “Penny,” our decoy turkey, in the garden, and that worked temporarily. They are scared of her, and they still stay clear of where she is.
As far as them keeping a check on the bugs, that is a huge benefit. Ours eat lots of bugs. They have even eaten all the Japanese beetles off my rose bushes. 🙂
I guess we’d best keep the chickens outside the garden fence.
You can somewhat mitigate being overrun with zucchini by picking some of the flowers – they are edible. Stuffed and baked or fried, they are really delicious.
I like that plan.
Your garden looks wonderful! We haven’t gotten any zucchini from our neighbors yet, but yesterday someone brought us some cucumbers, some sort of heirloom variety that I’ve never seen before. They are covered with bristles and are rather “hairy.” I’ve never seen a cucumber that needed a shave before.
Around here – I think I’m probably about 3 hours south of y’all- the folks have been saying that the mild winter we had is the reason the ticks have been so bad this year. We’ve had to quit our long walks in the woods because of them. Over the course of one day of rambling around outside my son found twelve of those teeny tiny seed ticks crawling on him. I believe that’s a family record for the greatest amount of ticks found on one person in one day.
Twelve?!! Yee-ikes.
Some thoughts from the experienced country person (don’t know if you want it, but there might be a comment reader who’s interested.):
Zucchini: generally best when eaten tender and young (grocery store size or even smaller.) The plants are so prolific that you can take the blossoms (there are recipes for zucchini blossoms – usually deep fried) and small ones and not worry about running out. Large zucchini are relished by pigs and cows. The chickens might take it, but I kind of doubt it, since they’re predators.
Ticks: You can get anti-tick treated pants or treatment for your own pants. It’s made out of promethrin (sp?) I think. They’re pretty easy to find online. If they’re biting and attaching, that’s really bad – my sister had Lyme disease, and I assure you, you do not want it.
Thanks for the recipe! I think I’ll give it a try soon – it looks really good. I always enjoy your farm updates.
I appreciate the tips. I’ll happily tick-treat some pants.
Wow that’s neat about the hens laying mini-eggs, I never knew that !! Also, the zucchini is delicious when tiny like thumb size. If you have a bunch pick them when they are really small and saute them up, they are delicious.
Good idea. Given how many are popping up, I don’t think we have to worry about thinning the herd.
I actually never had any luck with zucchini or squash plants. I planted them a few years, one each one year, two each the next year. Squash borers destroyed the plants before they could produce.
Could your wife maybe share the soap solution she is using? I’d like to try it.
I’ll ask what she uses.
Congratulations on your big mention on Instapundit.com – This was linked by him today.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/04/fat-head-the-movie-michael-bloomberg-doesnt-want-you-to-see/
Outstanding. I wasn’t aware of that.
Awesome, Tom! I just hope the government doesn’t come in and shut you down for growing things, because you know, you can’t be in competition with Monsanto!
PS. The Zucchini fries look incredible. I might just skip the sausage and cheese and go right the fries! 😉
If Monsanto seeds blow onto my land, they’ll be coming after me.
Those don’t look like a chicken eggs to me. Too small and wrong color. Yes, hens will lay *slightly* small eggs at first, but nothing that tiny. And they’re either white, brown, or pastel blue/green (Araucana).
Harvesting early and often is the secret to zucchini.
Another way to preserve them so you can store them without electricity is dehydration. Make zucchini chips, with or without seasoning. You may be sick of fresh zucchini now, but you’ll appreciate the chips next winter.
In that case, I’m wondering what critter laid eggs in the henhouse.
Thanks for the farm reports, very inspiring.
Any plans for an edible forest garden?
I just started to study it, I liked the idea of, once it is establised, the main work is harvesting.
No plans for that yet.
If you do find yourself inundated with vegetables you could always take a leaf out of Petro’s book over at Hyperlipid… http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.ca/2012/03/fruit-and-vegetables.html …and feed it to the chickens 😉
Tom, we love this recipe which is also low carb. It’s great as leftovers, so you can double or triple it if ya wants to. And if you get a spiralizer, you can enjoy zucchini noodles (just warm a bit after spiralizing) in place of spaghetti noodles. I highly recommend Gia Russa sauce. Man! Good, but pricey. Melt some mozz over that and it is heavenly!
Zucchini and Cauliflower Skillet
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T olive oil or cooking oil
4 breakfast sausage patties (or equivalent)
1-7.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 T snipped parsley
1 T tomato paste
1/2 t salt
1/2 t dried oregano, crushed
1/4 t pepper
2 medium zucchini, bias sliced 1/2″ thick
2 cups cauliflowerets
1/2 cup water
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 oz.)
Cook sausage; drain, crumble and set aside. In large saucepan, cook onion and garlic in oil till onion is tender. Stir in sausage, undrained tomatoes, parsley, tomato paste, salt, oregano, and pepper. Boil gently, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes or till slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, in a 10-in. covered skillet cook zucchini and cauliflowerets in water over medium heat about 5 minutes or till crisp-tender. Drain.
Pour sausage/tomato mixture over vegetables. Cover and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or till heated through. Stir and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cook, uncovered, about 3 minutes longer or till cheese is melted. Sprinkle with additional snipped parsley, if desired.
Makes 4-6 servings.
I’ll pass this on to the cook.
Ahhh, that’s what I need to plant: Zucchini. Maybe I’ll finally find a plant that doesn’t die on me.
For those “oops we forgot to pick ’em on time” zucchinis, the “what the heck, did this thing grow overnight???” zucchinis…slice ’em into palm sized rounds about a quarter inch thick, throw on some low-sugar marinara (or alfredo, that works, too), some mozzarella, and some sausage or pepperoni, and bake ’em like Chareva bakes the sausage stuffed ones. Mini zucchini pizzas!
Good idea.
Constant vigilance with zucchini so you get them all small. Also consider the non-hybrid striped ones next time, for more flavor and a little less yield. The big ones can be composted and I wonder whether hens might eat them (chopping up required perhaps).
My mom lives on her own little farm in the woods and has ducks to eat the ticks. They never seem to find ticks on themselves or their cats or dogs. Plus, they get yummy duck eggs!
I didn’t know ducks eat ticks. I hope our next flock of guinea fowl do the trick, but ducks sound interesting.
The zucchini recipe looks awesome and we already eat it twice a week – I’ll give it a try!
I grew-up in Russia, and we did a lot of canning because in a season veggies used to cost next to nothing, but in a winter time we only could buy such produce as some root vegetables, cabbage and apples. It was not bad to eat according to seasons, I still make a lot of root vegetable salads in a winter time and always have a gallon or two of sauerkraut in my fridge. I also often make too much of soup or a stew on purpose, while it is still very hot, I put it in a sterilized (in a microwave) reusable mason jars, then put on a lid which was simmering in a pot with a hot water, after closing, I put my cans upside down till everything is cooled. I often do it before hurricane season starts, and I never have to buy any food supplies during hurricane warnings, when population swipes from store shelves cookies, canned food and various snacks.
Your wife can stew zucchinis with tomatoes and other veggies her zucchinis, I also like a stew with only garlic and sour cream, or just pan-fry slices, put it in a hot jar (add some garlic and herbs), sterilize it in a microwave, and use it in a winter time as a base for some dish like a casserole or a vegetable rogue or a zucchini spread. Probably, the American way to deal with an extra food would be to buy an extra chest-freezer.
She’s planning to learn canning of foods as well. We’d prefer to know how to store food without depending on electricity.
“Chareva’s determined to make use of them and is already sounding a bit like Bubba talking about shrimp in Forrest Gump: “Zucchini salad, zucchini stew, boiled zucchini, fried zucchini, zucchini noodles, zucchini pancakes …”
This had me laughing.
BTW, was recently reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Klosterman_IV:_A_Decade_of_Curious_People_and_Dangerous_Ideas
and Chuck Klosterman did a 7 day McNuggets only diet back in the 90s where he actually improved cholesterol and something else, triglycerides (?) and much later gave a rather negative, or skeptical, early review to Super Size It. Especially re the choice aspects of fast food.
Makes me wonder what he was eating beforehand. I don’t know if McNuggets were fried in trans fats in the ’90s — probably.
One year our newest neighbor in rurual-suburbia decided to give this gardening thing he’d heard so much about a try. He figured he’d want about twenty zucchinis for cooking with……. So he planted 20 zucchini plants.
We kept the tick-dies medication on our dogs too, and boy howdy does that stuff work well. Our giant schnauzer must have brushed up against a tick houseparty one afternoon because I found 150 dying and dead ticks in out two bedroom apartment. *shudders*
So he ended up with, what, a thousand zucchini?
Tom,
This looks good, will give it a try…
Here is an interesting article…Disney is dropping their junk food ads…
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/disney-ban-junk-food-ads-kids-america-struggles-165346887.html
“Parents can be confident that foods associated with Disney characters or advertised on Disney platforms meet our new, healthier nutrition guidelines.”
I can’t wait to see what they consider healthy…and will it make its way into the theme parks too?
Here’s what the announcement says:
“Disney says it will introduce something called “Mickey Check” in grocery stores, which are Disney-licensed products that meet certain limits on calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugar.”
So they got one right.
I’m glad your garden and chickens are doing so well. We haven’t had as much luck with our garden this year due to our chickens. We let them out during the day (I would wait until yours are about 6 months old before trying to do that), and they have destroyed the garden. We have an electric fence, but it doesn’t faze them a bit. My husband didn’t want to spend more money on a regular fence, so they’ve been getting in there and eating everything. All my cucumber plants and pepper plants are gone. They ate a bunch of the yellow squash flowers, so we haven’t had any squash. Oh, and they ate all of my cabbage and lettuce, too. Can’t have a garden with chickens on the loose. We chase them out all the time, but it doesn’t help. We put “Penny,” our decoy turkey, in the garden, and that worked temporarily. They are scared of her, and they still stay clear of where she is.
As far as them keeping a check on the bugs, that is a huge benefit. Ours eat lots of bugs. They have even eaten all the Japanese beetles off my rose bushes. 🙂
I guess we’d best keep the chickens outside the garden fence.
Sorry, Tom, I left more typos than usual. Sometimes canning instructions make it sounds too difficult, especially part with sterilizing jars with produce or other things in oven or huge pot with a boiling water. I opted out nowadays for smaller jars (800 ml is the max) and a microwave as a sterilization device. Works for me last ten years. The most important part – make sure there is absolutely no soil inside, and the environment is acid in the jar.
A couple of ideas for 2XL sized zucchinis:
1)We feed them to “the girls” (our hens). Works best if you slice them lengthwise and lay them open for them. They will eat the insides out right down to the skin.
2) Skin, and slice the big ones in long strips about 1/4″ thick, and dehydrate to make lasagne zoodles. Rehydrate for a few min in warm water before use. Best used well into the winter when Zucchini Trauma has begun to subside. Dehydrating makes the lasagne much less watery than using fresh, and when rehydrated, they have a al dente texture and cook up great.
And we happen to have a dehydrator. Good idea.
I actually never had any luck with zucchini or squash plants. I planted them a few years, one each one year, two each the next year. Squash borers destroyed the plants before they could produce.
Could your wife maybe share the soap solution she is using? I’d like to try it.
I’ll ask what she uses.
Then there’s zucchini pickles (never tried them, but can’t imagine they wouldn’t be good.
Those don’t look like a chicken eggs to me. Too small and wrong color. Yes, hens will lay *slightly* small eggs at first, but nothing that tiny. And they’re either white, brown, or pastel blue/green (Araucana).
Harvesting early and often is the secret to zucchini.
Another way to preserve them so you can store them without electricity is dehydration. Make zucchini chips, with or without seasoning. You may be sick of fresh zucchini now, but you’ll appreciate the chips next winter.
In that case, I’m wondering what critter laid eggs in the henhouse.
Thanks for the farm reports, very inspiring.
Any plans for an edible forest garden?
I just started to study it, I liked the idea of, once it is establised, the main work is harvesting.
No plans for that yet.
Ahhh, that’s what I need to plant: Zucchini. Maybe I’ll finally find a plant that doesn’t die on me.
The zucchini recipe looks awesome and we already eat it twice a week – I’ll give it a try!
I also used to fry zucchini blossoms when I used to eat wheat flour. I would make a tempura-type of batter, make sure there wasn’t a bug in the blossom and dip it in the batter and fry in oil for a short time. Served with a small salad and a side of fresh tomatoes or strawberries and you have a brunch or lunch to die for! I am not sure what I would use in place of the flour. Maybe ultra-fine almond flour?
Susan M.
It’s worth a try. I have fond memories of my grandma’s fried pumpkin blossoms. That was in the 1960s, so she probably fried them in lard.
Sorry, Tom, I left more typos than usual. Sometimes canning instructions make it sounds too difficult, especially part with sterilizing jars with produce or other things in oven or huge pot with a boiling water. I opted out nowadays for smaller jars (800 ml is the max) and a microwave as a sterilization device. Works for me last ten years. The most important part – make sure there is absolutely no soil inside, and the environment is acid in the jar.
A couple of ideas for 2XL sized zucchinis:
1)We feed them to “the girls” (our hens). Works best if you slice them lengthwise and lay them open for them. They will eat the insides out right down to the skin.
2) Skin, and slice the big ones in long strips about 1/4″ thick, and dehydrate to make lasagne zoodles. Rehydrate for a few min in warm water before use. Best used well into the winter when Zucchini Trauma has begun to subside. Dehydrating makes the lasagne much less watery than using fresh, and when rehydrated, they have a al dente texture and cook up great.
And we happen to have a dehydrator. Good idea.
Then there’s zucchini pickles (never tried them, but can’t imagine they wouldn’t be good.
Last year I made dill pickles out of zucchini and I liked them better than cucumber pickles. They are also good roasted in the oven and topped with a meaty spaghetti sauce.
I also used to fry zucchini blossoms when I used to eat wheat flour. I would make a tempura-type of batter, make sure there wasn’t a bug in the blossom and dip it in the batter and fry in oil for a short time. Served with a small salad and a side of fresh tomatoes or strawberries and you have a brunch or lunch to die for! I am not sure what I would use in place of the flour. Maybe ultra-fine almond flour?
Susan M.
It’s worth a try. I have fond memories of my grandma’s fried pumpkin blossoms. That was in the 1960s, so she probably fried them in lard.
I didn’t want to say so before, but I have to second what Dave Sill says. Those are way too small and the wrong color for chicken eggs. Also, if they are not due to lay until August, then it’s very unlikely it was one of them. Ours never laid eggs that early. I wouldn’t expect any from them until late July.
Your Arucanas should lay blue/green eggs, and the Barred Rock should lay brown eggs. I can’t tell what other kinds you have, but I don’t think any of them lay speckled eggs. We’ve had chickens for 2 1/2 years. Some of our older chickens will lay a tiny egg randomly, but it’s always the same color as the full size eggs.
So something else laid an egg in the henhouse. That can’t be good.
Of course, I’m not a chicken expert, so feel free to ignore me. We have Arucanas, Barred Rock hens, Buff Orphingtons, a Black Australorp, and a White Giant. It was my husband’s idea. I wasn’t too keen on it at first, but when I started eating LCHF, I was grateful to have an abundance of eggs on hand.
I’m no expert either, but I’m looking forward to the eggs.
Last year I made dill pickles out of zucchini and I liked them better than cucumber pickles. They are also good roasted in the oven and topped with a meaty spaghetti sauce.
I didn’t want to say so before, but I have to second what Dave Sill says. Those are way too small and the wrong color for chicken eggs. Also, if they are not due to lay until August, then it’s very unlikely it was one of them. Ours never laid eggs that early. I wouldn’t expect any from them until late July.
Your Arucanas should lay blue/green eggs, and the Barred Rock should lay brown eggs. I can’t tell what other kinds you have, but I don’t think any of them lay speckled eggs. We’ve had chickens for 2 1/2 years. Some of our older chickens will lay a tiny egg randomly, but it’s always the same color as the full size eggs.
So something else laid an egg in the henhouse. That can’t be good.
Of course, I’m not a chicken expert, so feel free to ignore me. We have Arucanas, Barred Rock hens, Buff Orphingtons, a Black Australorp, and a White Giant. It was my husband’s idea. I wasn’t too keen on it at first, but when I started eating LCHF, I was grateful to have an abundance of eggs on hand.
I’m no expert either, but I’m looking forward to the eggs.
In my first 20 ft x 20ft garden I made the mistake of planting 3 zucchini plants. I ended up putting them in my neighbors’ mailboxes.
That’s cruel. You should put cherry-bombs in there instead.
hmmm, I’m always looking for something to replace hamburger buns, so maybe… zucchini sliders! with a side of zucchini fries! Or maybe even zucchini chips (we have a dehydrator too!). I’m off to the grocery store….
If you swing by here, I’ll give you several pounds for free.
Even if your pants are treated you have to watch out for the ticks that drop down on you from the trees.
We used to dust our yard with 5% Sevin to get rid of the ticks but the store where we got it isn’t here anymore.
I’ve become very conscientious about checking for ticks after being outside. I’ve found a couple halfway down my back, which means they dropped onto me and crawled down there.
Love to read the farm reports! I grate zucchini into spaghetti sauce and even chili, since each of those dishes improve with slow and lengthy cooking, the zucchini melts and you don’t even know its there. A couple of things I learned from experience growing zucchini, is that if you happen to leave them too long on the plant, they will stop producing new fruits. After the first burst of many fruits that you get in the beginning, my plants slowed way, way down and I couldn’t figure out why (because of their reputation of being so prolific). I came across the info by accident online that if there was a monster zucchini hiding on the plant, it wouldn’t produce anymore. Sure enough, I checked and found it, removed it and got more fruits after it was removed.
The other thing I learned was that if you are growing another type of squash in the same (small-ish) garden, they will cross and if you use any of the seed next year from one of the plants, you will get a hybrid. This happened to us with spaghetti squash and zucchini. The second year fruits were the colour of zucchini but the shape of spaghetti squash. Inside they were more solid like a zucchini while young, but when allowed to grow larger, had the spaghetti strands.
I believe Chareva was warned about the hybrid possibility. If not, we’ll get some interesting results.
Wow, awesome garden!! I am sooo jealous of your 5 acres. It’s exactly what I want to have someday!
Coconut-flour zucchini muffins are a wonderful way to use some more up without adding a lot of sugar/starch to your diet. We make them all the time (and the same recipe works well with grated carrots, although I add some cinnamon & nutmeg to those). It makes 6-8 muffins:
1.5-2 cups grated zucchini
1/4 cup coconut flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil or butter, melted
1/4 tsp salt (or 1/2 tsp if you used coconut oil, since it doesn’t have salt like butter)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsp honey (original recipe said 4 tbsp and 2 still seemed sweet … I might try 1 next time!)
Sounds excellent. I’ll pass it on to the cook.
In my first 20 ft x 20ft garden I made the mistake of planting 3 zucchini plants. I ended up putting them in my neighbors’ mailboxes.
That’s cruel. You should put cherry-bombs in there instead.