Monday July 30

Harvests of okra, eggplant and beans have been trickling in.  I usually eat the small Mountain Magic tomatoes on the spot so they never get their picture taken.  What I'm showing here are the ingredients for a batch of salsa.  First, about 9 pounds of Health Kick sauce tomatoes.  I'm really liking these tomatoes, they are productive and early.

That's not enough tomatoes to make 7 pints of salsa, what my canner will hold, so I picked about 5 pounds of Big Beef tomatoes.  I probably won't grow Big Beef next year.  It has excellent flavor, but the variety seems more susceptible than most to blight, always a problem here.

I like to fire-roast sweet peppers and add the pulp to the salsa.  These are Carmen on the right and a new variety for me, Italian Senise peppers.  I got the plants at May's greenhouse in Bloomington.  It's a very productive pepper and I like it a lot.

Finally, time to bring on the heat.  The small red peppers are Chenzo, the orange peppers are Bulgarian Carrot.  The Chenzo peppers are supposed to come in at 50,000 Scoville units, and I'm not going to test that rating out.  The Bulgarian Carrot is supposed to be a bit milder, but still much hotter than a Jalapeno.  I approached this cautiously, not wanting to make the salsa overly hot, but I think it could have been a little hotter.  Next time I'll add more heat.

The Chenzo plants would do well in a pot.  They are very ornamental, with small leaves, purple stems and a compact shape.  I'll have to try overwintering the plant indoors.  To see what other people are growing, head on over to Our Happy Acres and check it out.