Story seeds from the garden

By Jacqui Banaszynski

Enjoy an end-of-summer delight, courtesy of Ashley Lodato, a columnist for the Methow Valley News in the far north Cascades of Washington state. Lodato’s writing has caught our attention before; we featured a Why’s This So Good analysis of an essay she wrote last summer about high school graduation.

This week, she made magic out of the mundane topic of zucchinis. If you have a vegetable garden or live pretty much anywhere anyone else has one, you will nod with amusement through Lodato’s piece. Then I encourage you to read it a second time for the writing; it is a narrative structured in four acts, seasoned with just the right dash of metaphor.

(Warning: The story makes use of exclamation points, which some readers may find offensive. But these work, so get over yourself!)