Finally, a use for all that zucchini rather than dumping it on unsuspecting friends and neighbors.

When a 90-kilogram black bear attacked a Missoula County woman’s dogs just after midnight on Wednesday on the back porch of her home, she tried to separate the animals, and was bit in the leg by the bear.

Lieutenant Rich Maricelli, from the sheriff’s department said the woman reached for the nearest object at hand on the porch’s railing – a large zucchini she had harvested from her garden.

She flung the vegetable at the bear, striking it and forcing it to flee.