My tomatoes came back

[bearfan454]

All except one plant. They burned up in Aug and Sep. We had some good rain and now I have about 100 tomatoes out there. They are only a little bit bigger than a golf ball but they still have the good taste. The hot banana and New Mexico Big Jim hot peppers are still kicking some ass. I have at least 20 quarts of homemade salsa in the freezer. For kick ass salsa do this :

In the blender put one can of canned tomatoes, 4 hot banana peppers, 4 New Mexico Big Jim peppers, 2 or 3 garlic cloves, salt to taste, and a splash of lemon juice. Blend well seeds and all. People will be amazed how good it is.

You can substitute jalapenos if you like those better.

[Maddy McCall]

1. Add some green onions, cilantro, cumin, and a little olive oil

and that is very close to my salsa, and people rave about it too.


Oh, and I use lime instead of lemon juice.

[bearfan454]

2. Thanks. I will try the lime next time.

It can't hurt.

[Maddy McCall]

3. I would almost consider driving to texas to get some of those...

banana peppers....yum!

I am driving over in the next month or so to re-stock Pittsburg Hot Links, from Pittsburg, Texas. My buddies also rave about those, and you can only get them in east Texas grocery stores.

I drive over once a year and fill an icechest with them, and then pull several packages out for parties, cookouts.


Ever eaten them? If you ever drive through Gilmer Texas, be sure to stop at Doc's Hot Links and eat their hotlink chili...I can't even begin to describe how good it is!

[bearfan454]

6. Yes I have eaten Pittsburgh Hot Links.

My wife is from Mount Pleasant Tx. We drive right through Gilmer and Tyler and Pittsburg to get to her Mama's house for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[bearfan454]

8. When I was a kid my parents would get hot banana peppers from

the Michiana fruit market in NW Indiana. Is there anyone here on DU that knows about this place ? The bushels of hot banana peppers were $3.00 a bushel. My Mom used to can them. They were delicious. That is why I grow them in the garden. They are a childhood memory to me.

[liberalmike27]

4. Containers

I haven't grown any in a few years, but I used to use containers to grow them. Three gallon pots, sitting in plastic trays. I filled trays with water, and about a tablespoon of fertilizer and a tad of lime. I changed this mixture each week, and put them in the sunniest spot I could find, on a big table I built out of lumber that I scavanged from trash piles. I had incredible results, and the biggest problem I had to deal with was finding a way to keep them from being blown over by the wind. I finally settled on a string lattice, horizontally administered, with posts I nailed to the corner of the table. In the wind, they were so large and top-heavy this was necessary.

I used about half potting mix, half pete moss, a bag of perlite, vermiculite, a little lime too. It'd cost me about $40 to $50 to set up, but I would get way more tomatoes than that, and so much tastier than even curb markets.

One other thing, specifically related to your comment. When they waned in the middle of the summer, you just snip off a undiseased top, and put it immediately in water. Cut the rest of the tomatoe off, and then put some rootone on the cutting, poke a hole in the same mix, and plant it, leaving only a sprig above the surface, and it'll grow back like crazy. I live pretty far South, so the plants are really trashed by then with fungus and insects, so they wouldn't regenerate here.

I should do that again next year. You really have to fill those trays though, as in the summer they suck up all the water in one day, or it evaporates.

[emad]

5. Shot ot tequila and a bunch of fresh coriander to really

spruce it up....

Alternatively, sieve half a pint of your salsa mixture and add a shot of polish vodka that's been in the bottom of the freezer overnight. Makes one hell of a bloody mary - and the vitamins might be 'good' for you too

[Rowdyboy]

7. Made Habanero hot sauce this weekend...

One dab and I hiccuped for 15 minutes. Good stuff!