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Salsa Garden Tips
Salsa has become more popular than ketchup, at least that's
what they said on some show I saw on television. We have
been growing almost everything needed to make our own salsa
for years. Sometimes we don't get a very good garlic crop
but we usually do quite well growing and supplying enough
ingredients to can up many pints of our own salsa. It's way
better than anything we've found although lately there have
some companies producing better salsa. Still it's nothing
like the stuff that comes from your own garden!
The vegetables we grow for our salsa recipe are:
Tomato's, Jalapeno Peppers, Onions, Cilantro and Garlic.
Now there are lots of different tomato's and pepper plants.
Your choice of tomato is going to be more |
limited than
pepper if you don't use a pressure cooker to can your salsa.
Hybrid tomato's are less acidic than the older heirloom
types of tomato's. Acidic tomato's are important to the
canning process if you chose to use the boil bath method of
canning. You will still find yourself adding either vinegar,
lemon juice or both to salsa processed using the boil bath
method. Either way I feel it's best to use a more acidic
tomato. This way I don't have to add so much vinegar or
lemon juice to our salsa. I also like to add cherry tomato's
to our salsa. This is more work but adding 3 or 4 cherry
tomato's per jar is all it takes to sweeten the salsa enough
to really notice. Figure out how many quarts your recipe
makes, multiply that by 4 and use that many cherry tomato's
mixed in with your other tomato's when making your recipe.
Don't change the measurement just mix them in.
Peppers are definitely a matter of how much heat you want or
don't want. I have made salsa with almost every type of
pepper available. In the end I choose jalapeno's
exclusively. I like the robust flavor and they are the
perfect heat for me. I have tried using habenaro peppers
mixed in but I personally just don't care for the bitter
taste they offer to the recipe. Even just a couple
habanero's in the mix seems to be too much. As you can see
this is a matter of choice. This will be the biggest factor
when it comes to pleasing everybody in the house. Of course
if you are the only one who loves hot stuff you won't have
to worry about sharing it haha.
It will take a little time figuring out exactly which
peppers to use. If you prefer hot salsa I recommend starting
with pure jalapeno and go from there. If you like mild salsa
then maybe only add one or 2 jalapeno's and the rest bell or
other mild peppers. You may even want to leave hot peppers
out all together. It's a matter of choice, just use the
amount of peppers recommended in your recipe and select
which ones you like best.
Fresh garden onions work great in salsa. We prefer the white
onions but red, yellow or a mix works fine. Once again it's
a matter of personal taste but it's obviously not as
important as pepper selection. Plant your onion sets as soon
as the ground thaws and no chance of another freeze. Onions
are a cool weather crop and getting them in early means you
can start making salsa earlier. You can also make a second
planting when you plant your warm weather crops. Harvest
onions when you notice the greens starting to turn yellow or
brown. If you wait too long you can get top end rot and that
just ruins them for canning. Remember you need to use high
quality ingredients to make high quality salsa. We plant our
onions in double rows. This saves garden space and allows us
to weed them from both sides.
Cilantro is an optional ingredient that we prefer. A little
goes a long way. You can use the fresh leaves, dried leaves,
or fresh seed (coriander). We like to put a little in a
spice bag and let the flavor seep in and add just a touch of
leaves directly into the salsa. Some people say it gives
salsa a soapy taste and it actually does if you use too
much. If you do it right it makes salsa taste more
authentic. Using fresh seeds gives it a nice sweet taste.
Adding lemon juice instead of or with vinegar also ads a
sweet flavor. We sow cilantro directly in the garden when we
plant or warm weather crop. Make sure you keep it good and
moist until sprouts are about 2 weeks old and thin as
directed. There are hybrid cilantro seeds and heirloom
varieties. We have had luck with both kind but the hybrid
varieties seem to produce better. The trick is timing the
cilantro harvest out so it s ready and fresh when the other
ingredients come in. If it starts going to seed you can
always harvest the leaves and dry them out. |
Garlic is an ingredient that's a must in salsa. Growing it
has proven to be a little tough for us here in the northern
states. We still plant it and cross our fingers for a long
warm season. If we don't get to harvest garlic we just
purchase it at the grocery store. It's just nice to use our
own fresh garden ingredients. Plant garlic like onions and
keep well weeded.
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About The Author:
Written By Steve Snyder
Visit my garden seed website. We offer high
quality fresh flower, vegetable and herb seed
for the home gardener.
Millington Seed Co
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