A Salsa Garden

Enlarge Image Image Gallery This pot contains salsa fixings, including tomatoes, tomatillos, cilantro, chiles, and onions. We’ve also tucked in an Aztec sweet herb, whose leaves sweeten the iced tea that quenches the fire. Photograph by Rob Proctor

MEXICAN FOOD IS HOT. People from all regions of the United States are wild about the south-of-the-border taste of tacos, tamales, ­enchiladas, ­burritos, chimichangas, and fajitas. Even Chihuahuas tout Mexican cuisine in television commercials.

We think every Mexican dish is better smothered in salsa—a sometimes mild, sometimes wild, endlessly variable mixture of tomatoes, chiles, onions, and herbs. The pleasures of fresh salsa (and gazpacho, picante sauce, pico de gallo, and all those other related concoctions) enliven our summer meals and add fire to our dinners even when frost first grips the autumn garden.

Store-bought salsa may serve well enough in winter, but no self-respecting cook will put up with salsa from New York City or anywhere else when fresh ingredients are on hand. These are available in many local markets these days, but growing your own can be easy and rewarding. You can cultivate whatever variety of chile pepper is most compatible with your own taste buds, from warm to five-alarm, as well as onions that suit your palate and color sense. And the tomatoes—well, there’s no substitute for a juicy, homegrown tomato.

The one-pot garden

You don’t need an enormous vegetable garden with rows and rows of tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, onions, peppers, and tomatillos to provide the makings of homemade salsa. An 18- to 20-inch terra-cotta pot or half whiskey barrel placed on a sunny deck or patio or elsewhere in the yard can yield enough fresh ingredients for several big batches. If space isn’t a problem, each component may be grown in a separate pot.

The potting mix for a salsa pot (or any other kind of container garden) should be porous and fast draining. Water and fertilize regularly but don’t go overboard on the nitrogen; too much results in an excess of tomato and pepper leaves and fewer fruits. Look for tomato varieties that have been bred

for use in patio containers and hanging baskets. They don’t need staking and generally mature earlier than other types.

All peppers love heat. Don’t set plants out until the nights are warm, or they will be stunted and may never recover. Here in Denver, where nighttime temperatures can drop below 50°F any time of the year, we set container-grown peppers against a south-facing wall, which absorbs heat during the day and gives it back at night to keep the plants a little warmer than they might otherwise be.

Tomatillos, or husk tomatoes, are easily adapted to life in containers; grow them just like regular tomatoes. A single tomatillo adds a distinctive, somewhat sour taste to even a large batch of salsa. The papery husk is removed and the tomatillo chopped. To develop the best flavor, it is then simmered for 2 to 3 minutes and cooled before adding to the salsa.