“Is that thing on steroids?”

Stafford County resident Launarene Morgan worked for years as a postpartum nurse at Mary Washington Hospital’s maternity ward. For the past few days, she has been making the rounds to her doctor’s office, her neighbors’ houses, her church and other places with a 5-pound, 9-ounce, 17.5-inch…zucchini.

That’s right, Morgan reached down into her garden on Tuesday and discovered a squash as big as a baby.

She said she planted zucchini starts that she purchased at C&T Produce’s market in southern Stafford County during the second week in April.

Our area had some unseasonably cold days after those starts went in the ground, and for weeks, everyone told Morgan she’d started too early, and there was no way her little plants would survive.

Record heat kept Morgan away from her garden for a few days recently, but on Tuesday, she and her husband got out to inspect their cucumber and zucchini plants, and that’s when she found the giant squash.

“I was like, that’s as big as a baby!” she said. Since then, the big green baby has accompanied her as she’s gone about her daily business about town, and everywhere she’s taken it, folks have asked whether it’s on steroids or is some kind of mutant.

When she’s finished showing it around, Morgan still hasn’t figured out what to do with her prized produce. She’s already made batches of zucchini bread this year, and 5 and a half pounds of zucchini will get her through more than one recipe.

Here’s where we’d like your help.

What would you do with a zucchini this big? Does anyone have a home-grown vegetable on par with this one yet this season? We’ll collect responses for a story in next week’s Food section.

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