Veggies!

I don't think they are year round here in New Mexico either, but the reseed like mad if you let them. Have them one year and let them go to seed and you will almost certainly have them for several more years -- with a little water. But I find they like rich soil, so you do have to make sure to compost the volunteers. I learned that if they fall over and touch the ground, the stems will sometimes root. They haven't for me, but I read that some where.

I think I have seen green tomatillos for sale any time of year but I never buy them, I prefer just to use what I grow. I never knew purple tomatillos even existed until I bought the plant this Spring.

I did freeze tomatillos one year, but I then I forgot to use them. Now I just make & freeze the salsa .

This message was edited Sep 25, 2009 1:53 PM

thanks for the welcome Dahlia.

hi Tim, tomatillo are seasonal. there are a few year round but they are expensive. why buy when u can grow. if u don't grow, buy only in season.

Betty, Hesperia soil is lean and hard desert sand. tomatillo is a prolific grower here too. i know i used to grow them yrs. ago before i got very sick. i will try again next season. there are lots of Latino markets here, and that is where i get mine. i made a big batch of this 2 mos. ago, and so with my garlic substitute. i am set for the year without salt. carrots is easy to clean, if the dirt is thick, soak in water with salt, then use a brush. and they rinse easy.

at my age, i do not have all the energy i once have, so i have to device ways for me to fix healthy and easy food.

for those who has not tried eating healthy food, do give it a try, in the long ran u won't be sorry. when my siblings and i were young, i brothers often call me a goat in the family, cuz i am the only one who consumes lots of veggies. compared to all them who survives on meat. having said that, i thought in my old age i will be spared of all the illnesses that runs in the veins of both paternal and maternal grandparents. lo and behold. that is not true. inspite of all the precautions i took in younger age, i had still been a victim of hypertension, heart disease and diabetes.

Sadly, not all conditions and illness can be avoided by eating healthy foods. But, some can. Heredity plays a big part. As for tomatillos, even I have grown them, so they must be easy and not too picky about soil. I don't see them around in the winter at all. Like Lisabees, we freeze the salsa sometimes. I had not seen the purple ones until now.

The purple tomatillos are going on my list for next year, they tasted great. I think I will freeze the salsas too. I did freeze pesto this year and hoping to get a second crop of basil before winter. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Oh dear, with all these great suggestions, I may have to buy a freezer! We can usually get fresh tomatillo at the grocery store here in Los Alamos. They probably have them in Santa Fe if you look for them.
I have grown the green ones, but not the purple ones also. I have to say that I like the color of the purple ones and black salsa like lisabees made looks pretty interesting!

I planted a ton of basil this year too - why didn't I think of freezing pesto? The leftovers from my last batch can go into the freezer tonight!

Has yours frozen yet? If not, it's not too late. I just grew enough basil for fresh use. DH doesn't like pesto. But I do! Next year, I need to grow more.

I really wasn't sure about the color of that purple tomatillo salsa - I'm glad you all liked it!

Paj, we keep cross-posting!

I do still have plenty of basil (we came close the other night, but it didn't freeze) so I will make more pesto but I have some I made a few days ago for pasta, had it on some wraps for lunch today, now the rest of THAT batch will go in the freezer before I get tired of it!

I have a recipe for grilled eggplant sandwiches that calls for pesto. If I had grown more I could make my own, but instead I had to buy the Trader Joe's pesto for it. Next year!

I have decided not to worry about the sequence of posts. Just read them all eventually. I am always cross posting, it seems.

Hey, my Joy of Cooking recipe for pesto says to freeze it before adding the Parmesan cheese and pine nuts. I don't think those two ingredients hold up well in the freezer!

Parmesan doesn't hold up well at all in the freezer for me. Pine nuts do ok though.

It is my understanding that one can just puree the basil and freeze it in cubes in the freezer and take that out later to make pesto. That is what I should be doing. Note the use of the word "should".

I do that paj with a little olive oil so it's easier to get out of the trays.

Pesto without pine nuts & parmesan? Might as well just freeze the basil then! I do that, it actually freezes fine by itself in a Ziploc baggie. It's better frozen than dried.

Lisabees, you add the pine nuts and parmesan when it thaws out and you use it . I guess it is more like a pesto base. I saw the little round pie pumpkins in the store the other day. I love pumpkin and winter squash. Those pumpkins are really good cooked and grilled in little chunks with rosemary, olive oil and parmesan. You could put pine nuts with that or toasted sunflower seeds or whatever.

Hmmm. Harvest season is great. I bought some winter squash and lots of tomatoes, peppers and onions to make pepperonata with. DH doesn't like it so more for me. He will eat the steamed winter squash though.

today, i went to a Latino market. saw some purple tomatillo. geez, are they really that small? small as in small marbles. it was prized $1.29 per lb. no, i did not buy any, since i got some salsa both in the fridge and freezer. to those in the know, are these purple tomatillo really that small? hmmmm i think to myself, i don't think so, not with all that work involve. maybe i will try google.

here u go http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=775%28OG%29 , http://www.tomatogrowers.com/tomatillos.htm

maybe i will give it a try next growing season.

edited to add more links:
http://tradewindsfruit.com/tomatillo.htm , http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0900410820308.html , http://betterwithbutter.com/purple-tomatillo-salsa/

This message was edited Sep 27, 2009 3:25 AM

My purple tomatillos were small marble up to about ping pong ball size.

The plant itself was also fairly small and it fruited (and finished) much sooner than the green tomatillos do.

This message was edited Sep 27, 2009 12:21 PM

Good info, lisabees. Helps us know what to expect. Their small size does not seem to have harmed their flavor however. On dark colored salsas -- there is also kale pesto. I have never made it, but I think it comes out very dark, almost black and is supposed to be good. It's on my list of stuff to try some day.

I picked Acorn Squashes today. Here is a pile in front of the coffee pot. Had one for dinner and it was delicious. Zerbeebee was not pleased.

Lovely Acorn Squashes, dparsons. You have a winter of good squash eating ahead of you! I am green with envy. Zerbeebee will complain bitterly but when he grows up he will grow them and feed them to his children as well. Kidlings are a mysterious lot but they copy everything you do, but rarely give you the satisfaction of knowing they will rely on your lessons in the future. In the meanwhile, Zerbeebee will have a good supply of vitamin A and who knows what all else -- from no less than acorn squash. You are a great dad!

I vote with Zerbeebee on this one. I'm not crazy about most squishes either. I do like playing with spaghetti squish though.

I did not like winter squash as a child either, but in adult life I grew to like a number of them -- acorn is good, spaghetti squash ( or squish as the case may be) is excellent when baked with salsa in the spaghetti part, but as of now my favorite is butternut , or when I grow it galeux d'eysiennes. ( Hope I spelled that right.). galeux is like an even finer butternut. I have never seen it for sale but it is one of the queens of the winter squash world.
Dahlia, maybe you can learn to like these -- in time. I don't know why I found them so challenging at first, but it was definitely growing them that made me really love them. Squash are easy to grow and are so big and productive that give the gardener a feeling of accomplishment. Hopefully I will get some growing again next year.

I Love winter squash! If Zerbeebee doesn't want it I will gladly take it off his hands. He can mail it to me! Probably too expensive to ship. : ) Maybe if you try that recipe with the little chunks cooked and then broiled or grilled with olive oil, rosemary and then parmesan cheese, he might like that because they have the texture of french fries. Or it could be thin sliced and fried with red chile powder seasoning. More than one way to cook a squash.

Indeed, roybird and for Zerbeebee, it is probably important to try new recipes, but for me, simply cut it up, remove the seeds, and steam it. Can't beat it with a stick. You can add butter at the end if you want, but even butter is not necessary.

Sorry but Bleck! How does Zerbeebee feel about brocolies Dave-who-is-Dave? Me and Zerbeebee wil have steamed brocolies with apples and currents instead mmmmmm

Umm. Steamed broccolies with apples and currents sound wonderful! Is there anything to it other than the steaming? Are the currents fresh or dried?

Oh, those are gorgeous squashes, Dave!

Thanks for the input all. Zerbeebee is not a vegetable fan. Not even broccoli. He likes carrots and pumpkin pie. I have taught him that pumpkins are squishes and that did help adjust his perspective on them a bit. I think you are right Roybird, that texture and flavoring are important. Most squishes are bland, but make a nice basis for other flavors. The squish fries idea sounds tasty.

Beautiful acorn squashes! Here's a brief (true) story about acorn squash, I love them baked in the oven in quarters or eighths with butter and brown sugar in the cavity. When DH and I first started dating, I made our first Thanksgiving dinner, which of course had to include acorn squash. DH's daughter and her boyfriend joined us as well. DH is british, and had never had acorn squash (nor had his daughter). About halfway through the meal, Daughter asked me if she was supposed to eat the skin on the squash, and I said no, just scrape off the squash part. I then looked over to see that DH had already eaten the squash, skin and all... we all had a good laugh. No wonder he didn't particularly like it, LOL!

That is a great story. It reminds me of a story that occurred when my DH and I were dating. It had to do with black-eyed peas which I love. I just assumed that he loved them because he was Southern. I was so excited to have a boy friend who was Southern and understood the Southern Way. So I invited him for dinner and fixed black-eyed peas and some other things. He ate a large helping and raved about them. It was only after we were married that I learned he had detested black-eyed peas all his life and that when required to eat them for good luck on New Years, he took them one at a time with water as if they were pills.
When I learned that, I said, "Gee, you must have really liked me to eat an entire helping of black-eyed peas." He said that was true and I might add that he no longer eats them -- now that we are married.

I once made zucchini fries and they were delish. If you think Zerbeebee would be interested, I will find and post the recipe.

Now you're talkin! I LUV zucchini (which I maintain is a cucumber cousin so shouldn't count as a squish). Those are very romantic storys about the black eyed peas and acorn squishes. Paj I usually toss the broccolies and apples with a little oil to make it stick together. Currants are fresh off my shrub in late summer and dried the rest of the time. They are a little tart which works with the sweet apple.

Broccoli, apples and currants? Glahh. : O I think D.H. would probably like it because he loves to stick raisons in to all manner of foods where raisons don't belong. One squash thing I don't like is squash cream soup or Any cream soup for that matter. I like crunchy or chewy more than creamy. Maybe Zerbeebee is like that. I have never liked mashed potatoes, even!

Roybird, we could make a list of things where raisins don't belong. I'll start:
tuna salad

I'll go a little further and say Any salad! Except fruit salad. ( I like raisons with lamb curry. Or any curry.) But raisons don't belong with Any fish. No raison-sardine dishes. Currants are not raisons but have raisonish tendencies.

I love the story about your hubby & the black eyed peas, Paj!

Yes, that is sweet.