We just opened a jar of home-canned salsa that my husband has declared “powerful.” Hey, I labeled it hot–what did he expect? You can grow salsa in your garden and can it this year, with just a little planning. Here are the plants that you’ll need.
Tomatoes: Pick a rich paste tomato, or stick with a general-purpose tomato and I’ll give you directions on how to drain it after you chop it (and maybe make Bloody Mary Mix!).
Chile peppers: Both thick-walled jalapeno and thin-walled, larger Hatch or Anaheim peppers are traditional. Jalapenos are hotter. Hatch or Anaheim peppers are less hot. We grow both.
Garlic: Grow a little.
Onion: You don’t need much!
Oregano: Mexican oregano is that crucial secret-flavor herb in salsa.
Cilantro is the bright green, big-leafed herb with the distinctive flavor that I personally love in salsa, but you don’t want to put it in your salsa until you’re ready to serve. Canning will kill the flavor.
Plant the garlic and onion sets now (or as soon as your ground thaws enough to plant). Plant the oregano whenever you want. If you buy a plant and protect oregano through the winter, it may never die. Cilantro bolts in heat, so plant it early (as in now) and late (as in, for fall). Tomatoes and peppers love heat, so plant them as soon as the nights stay in at least the mid50s F.
That’s it. If you put these things in the ground some time in the next month or so, I’ll help you can salsa this summer. Yes you can can!
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WE adore our salsa in the summer. I put black beans and corn in mine, lots of tomatoes, several kinds of peppers, olives sometimes, fresh herbs. On hot summer nights that is a meal for me.
Oh, Polly, that sounds delicious! We make both fresh and canned salsa all summer, but I’ve never added olives. I’ll have to try that this summer. Can you grow olive trees where you live? It gets too cold here.
last year in july or august 2010 there was a post of a salsa recipe I would love to have, I thought I saved it. The recipe began with 22 tomatoes……could you repost this?
Hmmmmm. I didn’t think I ever posted a salsa recipe last summer, after my pepper plants all died under the care of my nearly-blind house sitter, while we were gone. I can work up a post with my recipe, however, maybe as soon as tomorrow.
thankyou in advance. Is there more than one homesteader group?
I’m sure that there are lots of homesteader blogs, and I know of Take Back Urban Homesteading and Modern Homesteading on Facebook.
I hunted the web last night a bit after I saw your query, searching for 22 tomatoes and salsa, hoping I could find the recipe that you wanted but, alas, I could not.