Loving the tomatoes

It's one of those "first of the season" entries here. In this case - the first salsa! Perhaps I should call it salsa fresca? I like it raw, chunky, wet and cold! Sure, there's some great cooked down salsas out there as well - I hope to make my Aunt Nadine's cooked salsa recipe that I had something like 3 or 4 yrs ago, and have been holding on to the recipe ever since. "This year!" is what I keep saying! Just need 20lbs of tomatoes, 4 green peppers, some other ingredients, and the willingness to can...

In the meantime - I find this picture doesn't do the goods justice! Mom recently emailed to ask what she should put in salsa - here's what I used:

• Big, juicy, ripe tomatoes (a couple Black Krims or Black From Tulas, plus some Supersteaks)
• A variety of different colored cherry tomatoes - just for the fun of the color (and to use 'em up since I have so many!)
• a jalapeno
• a green bell pepper, plus the remains of the only Great Aconagua (sp?) pepper leftover from last nite's salad
• an onion
• the juice of 2 limes
• 4 cloves of garlic (yeee-haw!)
• half a bunch of cilantro
• salt and pepper
• and then I tried adding some olive oil for fun - hm, could do without next time

I think that's everything?? Like I said, this picture doesn't do it justice!



Any suggestions on good ways to preserve a fresh/raw salsa like this? If I can it, does the heat cook the fresh flavor out, does it kill the cilantro taste, etc? I know if I freeze it it'll be mush when thawed... Will vacu-bagging it do any better?

Here's pics of the salsa plus more (but definitely not all!) of the tomatoes lingering around right now... Each afternoon when I get home from work I go through the daily "rotten tomato check" - it's no fun finding one that's gone all nasty and squishy on you - especially if they decide to leak...blech!




And I was excited to find a couple visitors in the potted tomatoes out back yesterday - something that says I must have good tomatoes! ;-) These two characters were both quite small, and on the same tomato plant. Folks would probably consider killing them right away, but they're looking pretty sluggish - probably due to the wasp eggs embedded on their backs? I noticed at least one of the two had a bunch of the egg cases already hatched - the little caps on the ends were hanging open, and the insides were empty.



And if there's tomato talk, there should also be basil! I took the combined basil from the latest garden pickings and the pots out back and made another big batch of pesto. This time I tried something different - a trick passed along from Julie at work (altho I don't think she's tried it yet). Blanching the basil leaves and then shocking them in an ice bath is supposed to set and preserve their vibrant green color. I usually just try to make sure the whole mess is covered in olive oil if I'm not freezing it. And if freezing, which I did with the two quart bags worth today, I just put it in about a 1/2 inch layer filling the entire quart freeze bag, pat all the air out, and freeze in a nice "pesto sheet," which I can easily break pieces off've when used later.

Mmmmm...I love growing my own stuff!