Salsa is probably my favorite fresh summer “from the garden” dish. Tomatoes, Cilantro, Onion, and Garlic and you have a fresh easy salsa. Garlic and Onions go in the ground in the fall and Cilantro goes in the ground first in the spring.
Cilantro is fresh — coriander is the seeds that grow when the plant bolts. Cilantro bolts fast. If this is your first time growing Cilantro, grow slow bolt cilantro to allow the fresh leaves to grow longer without bolting (or sending up the coriander seeds).
When I think Salsa, I think Mexico. When I think Mexico, I think Oaxaca. Oaxaca was the origin for maize, beans, cacao, tomatoes, chili peppers, squash, pumpkin, and turkeys. Also available in the fertile region of Oaxaca were pineapples, avocados, zapotes, and maguey.
If I were to go off the grid, I would probably go off the grid in Oaxaca. Ok, back to growing…
I grow:
Cilantro Oaxaca
Nice strain from the Zapotec people in Oaxaca, Mexico. Excellent flavor and good bolt resistance. It is also a good producer of coriander.
Cilantro is tough to grow. It’s another plant I would normally start inside, but this year I’m trying directly in the ground. Half the plants I cut for things like salsa. The others I let bolt to send up the coriander seeds. I cut the plants and allow the seeds to dry and then pull them off the stocks. The coriander seeds will last all winter.
What seems like a simple plant provides a lot of different options.
Related articles:
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
One thing I learned the HARD way is Cilantro does not have a life cycle like parsley. If I get real lucky my cliantro wil be planted set to come up the same time as most of the tomatoes (if I get any?!) come up in early September.