Green Tomato Salsa Verde

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Dave @ HappyAcres

This is the time of the year when many gardeners in my neck of the woods start scrambling to harvest their tomatoes before frost gets to them. And that often leaves us with many green tomatoes of all sizes and shapes, and a search for ways to use them all!

Green Tomato Salsa Verde (click on any image to enlarge)

As much as I like ripe tomatoes, I really like the green ones too. I love them fried, pickled, and even made into Green Tomato Bread. And they make tasty relishes and chutneys. But my new favorite thing to do with green tomatoes is to make them into salsa. The tart green sauce is great with tacos, burritos, casseroles – anywhere you might use a red salsa.

green tomatoes for salsa

This is my take on a green salsa that is often made with tomatillos. The tart, firm green tomatoes are combined with mild and hot green peppers plus onions and garlic to make a delicious and versatile salsa.

jars of finished salsa

Use a food processor to make a chunky salsa, or process in a blender to make a smooth version. Either way you do it, this is a great way to use those green tomatoes and capture a little bit of summer in a jar.


Green Tomato Salsa Verde Print This Recipe Print This Recipe
adapted from several recipes

4 lbs firm, green tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped bell pepper
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup chopped cilantro(optional)

1. Combine the green tomatoes, onion, peppers, garlic, salt, cumin and water in large pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and lower heat to simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes soften.
2. Add lime juice, honey and cilantro(if using). Let mixture cool before processing.
3. Ladle mixture into food processor or blender and process until the salsa has the consistency you prefer. Process in batches if necessary.
4. Makes about 5 pints of salsa, which should be stored in refrigerator for about a week or frozen for up to 12 months.

Servings: 40 (serving size 1/4 cup)

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 12 calories, <1 calories from fat, <1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 229.4mg sodium, 65.8mg potassium, 2.9g carbohydrates, <1g fiber, <1g sugar, <1g protein, 11.7mg calcium, <1g saturated fat.

 

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Sweet Potatoes, Green Tomatoes and Persimmons

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Our first frost forecasts came a bit earlier than usual this year. Frosty weather, or the threat of frost, always has me scrambling to harvest all the sensitive crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and sweet potatoes. Which also means I have to get busy and do something with all those veggies coming in! The kitchen has seen a flurry of activity the last few days, and the refrigerator is now stuffed with peppers and eggplant. I’m not sure if we’ve actually got frost yet, but the temps dipped into the thirties.

2012 sweet potatoes (click on any image to enlarge)

I dug the sweet potatoes late last week. We wound up with right at 35 pounds of them, less than the 62 pounds we got last year but more than the 25 pounds we got in 2010. Between the drought conditions, and a rabbit that got inside the fenced in garden and munched on the vines, some of the plants just didn’t make many sweet potatoes. I had two varieties planted this year: Beauregard and Hernandez. This year the Hernandez did much better than Beauregard, but I believe it was mainly because the rabbit feasted more on the Beauregard vines and left Hernandez alone. Last year the two varieties produced about the same amount. The 35 pounds of sweet potatoes will be plenty for us to dine on in the coming months.

Ancho and Numex Sunrise peppers for roasting

I also picked as many peppers as I could this week, ripe and green. The peppers produced about the same as they did last year. We have been dehydrating them, and dicing and freezing them for later use. My one Ancho 211 plant made lots of peppers, and I will dry the red ones for powder and roast the green ones on the grill, then chop them up and freeze them. I’m going to stuff some of the bell peppers and freeze them for later meals. I’ve found that’s a great way to enjoy peppers in the winter months. Of course I’ll probably make some more hot sauce with some of the hot peppers.

last eggplants of the season

It’s been a pretty good year for eggplants too. The last harvest brought the yearly totals to about 36 pounds, which is a couple of pounds more than last year. We’ve enjoyed them grilled, stir-fried and made into Baba Ghanoush. I always enjoy them in season and then miss them when they’re gone!

green tomatoes for salsa

I got quite a few green tomatoes off the vines, enough to make a batch of Green Tomato Salsa Verde and still have lots left over. I need to share that recipe, because it’s a great thing to do with green tomatoes at the end of the season. I freeze the salsa instead of canning it, and it does quite well that way. I also saved some of the bigger ones for frying. I wanted one last taste of fried green tomatoes! That’s on the menu for tonight. I also started a couple of jars of lacto-fermented green tomatoes. I am having fun with this old-fashioned way of pickling things without vinegar. I’m wanting to try pickling carrots, radishes, turnips and kohlrabi this way too. It won’t be long before those veggies are ready.

bowl of green Juliet tomatoes

Another real treat we are just now enjoying is the Asian persimmons. I have two trees planted: Gwang Yang and Ichy Ki Kei Jiro. We have a total of 15 persimmons on the two trees, which will be our biggest harvest to date if they all ripen. These two trees are non-astringent types, which means they can be eaten when they are still firm like an apple and you won’t pucker up! I would like to plant one astringent type because I like them too. Hachiya probably won’t do well here, but I am looking into planting either a Tanenashi or Saijo tree.

Gwang Yang persimmons

I’ve started harvesting the fall kale. I got a mix of Lacinato and Beedy’s Camden that I fixed for a side dish one night, and some went into a kale soup. I’ve also got Rainbow Lacinato kale planted. I skipped planting collard greens this year, though we planted some at the Impact Community Garden. I need to get down there with my camera and get some photos. We’ve got a lovely fall garden going down there.

Beedy’s Camden kale

That’s a peek at what we’ve been harvesting here in early October. To see what other goodies gardeners from all over the world are harvesting, visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Mondays. And Happy Growing to all of you gardeners out there!

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Growing Asian Vegetables: Mizuna

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Dave @ HappyAcres

This is the fourth installment in a series about my experiences growing Asian vegetables. You can find the other articles by clicking on the tag “Growing Asian Vegetables” at the bottom of this post.

Are you familiar with mizuna? It’s quite possible you and many others have eaten mizuna and never realized it, since it’s a common ingredient in salad green mixes you find at the grocery. And there’s a good reason it finds its way into those mixes. Mizuna is quick and easy to grow, cold hardy, mild tasting, and very lovely to look at too. The crisp leaves are sturdy and keep well after harvest, and they add some ‘loft’ to salad mixes. Mizuna is also tasty when cooked, useful in soups, lightly steamed, or stir-fried by itself or with other vegetables and meats. And that makes it pretty versatile in the kitchen as well as in the garden.

mizuna seedlings (click on any image to enlarge)

Mizuna (Brassica rapa var. japonica) is botanically related to turnips, though the plant certainly doesn’t look like or taste like turnips. It grows in a clump or rosette form, with slender and juicy white leaf stalks and feathery, finely dissected green leaves. There is also a variety with reddish-purple leaves called Purple Mizuna. I like a green leaved selection called Kyoto that I have grown for the last couple of years. Early Mizuna is another widely available and popular variety.

closely planted Mizuna in greenhouse bed

Mizuna plants are tolerant to both heat and cold. It’s great for fall planting, and the plants usually survive the winter here in our zone 6b garden when protected by a cold frame or row covers. Since mizuna is a biennial, the overwintered plants will usually bolt and flower when the lengthening days of early spring arrive. The yellow flowers are attractive to bees and beneficial insects though, which makes it tempting to let it flower if you don’t need the growing space. And like most Asian greens, the flowers and flower stalks are edible. Plants allowed to flower will self-seed if left to grow long enough for seed to mature. They will readily cross with other Asian greens and turnips if they are flowering at the same time. Spring plantings of mizuna are usually slower to bolt than many other Asian greens. And while mizuna will tolerate hot summer weather, the quality of the leaves will suffer.

overwintered Mizuna flowering in mid April

Mizuna seeds can be sown in place where you want the plants to grow, or it can be sown indoors in a tray or container and transplanted outside when seedlings are 2-3 weeks old. Mizuna is fast growing, and mature plants will be ready to harvest in 6-8 weeks. Whole plants can be cut for harvest, or leaves can be cut with scissors a couple of inches above the soil line and plants will regrow leaves for a second or third cutting (cut and come again method).

mature mizuna plant after harvest

Since mizuna is great in salads, I like to add it to my mixed container plantings. It grows at about the same rate as lettuce and arugula, so it is a good choice with those and other quick growing mesclun mixes. The young mizuna leaves can be ready for cutting as soon as 20 or 25 days.

mizuna in mini salad box with other greens

If you’ve not tried growing mizuna yet, you might want to add it to your repertoire of quick and easy to grow greens. It’s not too late to sow for a fall/winter crop in many areas, or as a spring/summer crop in the southern hemisphere. It’s become a staple here at Happy Acres in all four seasons, and I’ll bet it would look and taste good in your garden as well.

Tubtrug full of mizuna greens

I’ll be back soon with the next installment highlighting another Asian vegetable. Until then, happy growing!

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More Hot Sauce Adventures

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Dave @ HappyAcres

In the last month or so I shared three of my recipes for hot pepper sauces. Since then, I have done more experimenting with these basic recipes, tweaking them by using different peppers, and different levels of salt, sugar and vinegar. And what I have found is that they are all good! Like most homemade foods, making your own hot sauces allows you great freedom and creativity, and the opportunity to make things exactly like you like them.

When I made the first three sauces, I had mostly ripe cayenne and serrano peppers. All my jalapenos were still pretty well green at that point. Now I have ripe jalapenos as well, so I can add them to the mix along with the others. My container grown Cayennetta plant has provided me with well over 100 peppers so far, though I haven’t kept an exact count. This 2012 AAS winner is a winner in my books too, maturing into a short bushy plant that just keeps on making peppers all season long.

But back to the sauces themselves. I made two more batches of No-Rooster Chili Garlic Sauce, one with red jalapenos and serranos, and the other batch with green jalapenos. Sitting together in the kitchen they remind me of Christmas colors! I gave the red version to a friend who is going to make me some of his BBQ sauce in return. For the green version I removed most of the seeds and membranes inside the peppers, to make it a bit milder. It turned out well, with a fresh taste that is somewhat milder than the first batch I made, but still plenty hot. I kept it for myself.

green and red chili garlic sauces

I also made a version of the Basic Fermented Sauce using green jalapenos. I think it compares favorably with the Tabasco brand Green Pepper sauce, which I find has a bit too much salt and vinegar for my tastes. It turned out with an olive-drab color, which is probably why the Tabasco brand comes in a green glass bottle!

Green Jalapeno Hot Sauce

And I made what might be a one-of-a-kind version of the Sriracha-Style Hot Sauce using my Hot Happy Yummy peppers. At least it might be the only chance I get to make this one in 2012, as I am not sure how many more of those peppers I will get. I’ll admit I am not exactly an impartial judge, but I do think this sauce may be my favorite so far. The fruity taste of the Happy Yummy peppers really comes through. And I cut back a bit on the sugar, which suits my tastes just fine. It turned out a lovely orange color, which is what I was hoping for.

Yummy Sriracha Hot Sauce

I now have another batch of the Basic Fermented Hot Sauce going. I plan on letting this one ferment for a bit longer than the first batch I made, which fermented for a week. It’s got a blend of mostly ripe cayenne and serrano peppers. I would like to let it go for a month, if I can wait that long. We will see!

pepper mash fermenting

 

 

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For A Quick Green Manure, Try Buckwheat

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Fields of buckwheat used to be a common sight in America in colonial times, especially in northern areas. But in the modern era it has fallen out of favor as food for humans or livestock, with corn, soybeans and wheat occupying much of the space in farmers fields these days. But buckwheat still has a place in home gardens and on small farms as a fast growing cover crop, or ‘green’ manure. And for beekeepers like me, it also does double duty as a honey crop.

honeybees visiting buckwheat flowers (click on any image to enlarge)

Buckwheat is a warm-season cover crop that goes from seed to bloom in just 30-45 days, depending on the weather and the variety planted. That makes it great for any garden areas that might go empty in summer or early fall. I had two such areas in my garden this year. One was a bed where potatoes were grown and the other had a spring planting of brassicas (cabbage family) in it. Both areas are going to be planted with garlic later this fall, which I usually get in the ground in mid to late November.  So they were prime candidates for buckwheat. The flowers in the above photo are on buckwheat that was sown just 30 days ago.

bed with buckwheat growing

I do have another ulterior motive for planting the buckwheat. You see, honeybees and other pollinators just love it! Buckwheat makes a great honey crop, though the resulting honey is dark and has a strong, distinctive flavor. Around here, most of the fall honey is dark anyway, when things like goldenrod and other fall wildflowers are the main nectar sources. A little bed of buckwheat won’t provide that much nectar for our bees, but every little bit helps. I am hoping to get at least a bit more honey from the hive this fall before cold weather arrives and things stop blooming. And I actually like the dark, stronger flavored fall honeys.

buckwheat seed

Buckwheat rapidly grows to around 24 to 36 inches tall, providing lots of succulent green growth to eventually turn back into the soil. You can often find seed in garden centers, or you can get some from a health food store if you only need a small amount. If you go the latter route make sure you get whole seeds or groats suitable for sprouting, and not toasted or otherwise processed seeds. Germination is quick, usually in 2-3 days. The groats in the below photo have a lot of damaged grains, but they will still sprout and grow.

buckwheat groats

I’ll use a fork to turn the buckwheat into the soil about two week before I’m ready to plant the garlic. I might be doing it sooner if we get a forecast for freezing weather or a hard frost, because buckwheat isn’t the least bit winter hardy. And unless you want volunteer buckwheat plants, it needs to be turned in before the seeds mature. I’ll probably use my small Mantis tiller to chop it up in the soil, unless I feel like doing it by hand. Either way, the buckwheat will smother out weeds and keep them from taking over while the beds are waiting for garlic planting time. And when turned under it will add organic material to the soil, and provide a bit of nitrogen as it breaks down.

skipper butterfly on buckwheat flowers

The buckwheat itself will remove some nutrients from the soil while it’s growing, so I worked in a nice layer of compost and some organic fertilizer before sowing the buckwheat and raking it in lightly. I’ll also add a bit more compost to the silty soil before planting the garlic, since it is a heavy feeder and will be occupying the space for about 8 months or so.

If you have a bare spot in the garden that’s going to be idle for at least 45-60 days, you might try growing a cover crop of buckwheat there. Buckwheat is a magnet for all kinds of beneficial insects, so you’ll be doing them and your garden a favor in the process!

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