As the spring looks to summer, my mind tends to turn to the garden. There is something so hopeful about growing something your family can eat, or beautiful flowers that can brighten up your family yard. I learned about the fun of planting directly from seeds in the last couple of years – and they have several distinct advantages over buying plants. Perhaps the biggest advantage to seeds is the cost! Seeds are extremely cost effective, and will allow you to grow something beautiful for pennies on the dollar. And that is one reason I was so excited to partner with True Leaf Market on this post. In the past when I have shopped at a plant nursery, I have only had a few varieties of plants or herbs to choose from. But when you buy seeds from True Leaf Market, you have hundreds and hundreds of varieties of seeds to choose from! This year our family decided to plant a salsa garden in our back yard.
This is what we learned, and how you can plant a Salsa Garden yourself…
Tips for Planting your Garden:
- I love looking at all the True leaf Market garden seed packets the options are endless! Herbal tea gardens, flowers galore – they have everything I need for spring and summer planting. And one of the most helpful things they offer is a salsa garden seed kit! Buying all the seeds you need at once saves tons of time and research!
- Make sure your garden plot gets at least 6 hours of sunlight each day. Salsa ingredients don’t do well in constant shade.
- Your tomato plants will need a trellis or tomato cage. And if you place it on the north side of your garden space the tomato can grow nice and big, and still not shade the rest of your plants that need sun!
- Salsa gardens can be quite small if you want them to be. This might be the perfect garden to try in a small raised garden bed or even in a series of containers!
- Let kids take photos as your seeds grow! They will love having a log of how quickly their plants have grown and blossomed! This can be a great home school activity!
It can be fun to plan your salsa garden based on your favorite salsa recipes ingredients. But you can also take a short cut, and order everything you need in one handy kit from True Leaf Market. Want the perfect herb garden seeds? Then you might order the True Leaf Market Kitchen Herb Garden Kit.
Want a salsa garden like our family is planting? Then you might prefer to order the True Leaf Market Seed Assortment – Mexican Salsa.
A Salsa Garden will need at least one variety of the following ingredients:
- A variety of tomato (we are growing red cherry tomato, tomatillo husk tomato, and Hamson tomato).
- A variety of Onions ( we selected Tokyo long white onions, and Walla Walla onions).
- A variety of Peppers ( we are growing jalapeno hot peppers, serrano peppers and cayenne peppers).
- A variety of Herbs ( for us, this has to be cilantro).
- A variety of Garlic ( Garlic chives were our choice)
It can be fun to select seeds for several varieties of each ingredient, and then to play around with your perfect salsa combination! Do you prefer a certain tomato? Is there a certain onion variety that works perfect with the heat of your salsa?
The only way to know is to experiment with multiple varieties of seeds!
Now that you have your seeds growing and ready to harvest, here is an easy salsa recipe you can use as a base to create your family’s favorite salsa recipe!
~ Garden Salsa Recipe ~
Ingredients:
- 4 tomatoes
- 3/4 small onion
- 1 jalapeno pepper (Serrano for more heat)
- 1 garlic clove
- cilantro (to taste)
- salt (to taste)
Instructions
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Pluck tomatoes from your garden. Pull off all leaves and stems and rinse really well.
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Roast tomatoes in the oven at 400F for 20-35 minutes.
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Add the roasted tomatoes to your blender along with 1/2 onion, 1 garlic clove, and 1/4 of the Jalapeno (less hot) or Serrano pepper (more hot).
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Blend until combined, but while mixture is still chunky. Taste and adjust heat level. Adding more hot pepper to taste.
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Salt to taste.
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Sprinkle with cilantro.
Thank you to True Leaf Market for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.
About Shannon SchmidShannon traded in her sensible NYC TV producer shoes (they were best for taking the subway), for a pair of Texas Cowboy boots when she married her best friend! He's at fault for making this Yankee a Texan! Shannon writes about all things that make a house a home. Her chief blogging inspiration is being the proud & slightly neurotic mom of a preschool age daughter.
You can find Shannon on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and her new favorite place to hang out, Google+.
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