Mr. Coxon’s Salsa

(I reinvent this every time, depending on ingredients I have)

1) Blend a blender full of tomatoes (I use heirlooms from my garden)

2) Add a small can of tomato paste, a tablespoon or two of vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar), a teaspoon or more of salt, a diced medium yellow onion, and about 6 cloves of minced garlic.

3) Add your choice of hot peppers: A small can of green chilies adds flavor without heat. Seeded jalapenos add flavor and just a little heat, while leaving the seeds in greatly increases the heat (I use 4-6 of these most of the time). If you can find chipotle chilies, these have great flavor and heat (they are smoked jalapenos and my personal favorites). Habanero peppers have a nice flavor and an insane amount of heat (1 or 2 is plenty spicy for me and will make most people cry).

4) Blend again thoroughly.

The mild salsa I served at the beginning of the 2003 school year followed steps 1 and 2, with 4 seeded jalapenos. I added a can of black beans and corn in the bowl and stirred them into the salsa.

All salsa tastes better after it has had a few days to sit. Fresh salsa should be refrigerated, where it lasts for weeks or months. I freeze half a dozen gallon zip locks full of salsa as I harvest tomatoes.

Last year I grew Black Krim Russian and Yellow Pear heirlooms. The Black Krims have tremendous flavor and no shelf life (they rot on my vines a day after ripening if I leave them). The Yellow Pears are prolific and last for a long time, especially in the refrigerator and on the vine. Their flavor is decent.

I order most of my seeds from Seed Savers’ Exchange at http://www.seedsaversexchange.org/

They sell heirloom vegetable seeds, which are a little more expensive than regular seeds, but are a great way to experiment with unusual varieties and “new” flavors. At the same time you are helping to preserve America’s gardening past and increase the genetic variety of necessary food crops. Seed Savers’ offers hundreds of tomato varieties, for example, while only half a dozen are available at local stores (and these are usually selected for shelf life and looks, not flavor and nutrient content). If you have had problems with disease, try unusual heirlooms the diseases may not “know” about.