It’s time for the 7th Annual Salsa Contest at The Farm Market Under the Dome Saturday, August 18, 2018
Recipes from across Middle Tennessee will be competing for cash First ($35), Second ($25) and Third ($15) prizes! Enter in either of two (or both!) categories: Hot or Mild. (More about salsa below)
Entries are lined up on a table, with a steady supply of corn chips on hand for you to sample each one. Vote for your favorite. It is that easy to participate and that easy to win.
To enter, simply bring 1 pint to one quart of your prepared salsa. If yours turns out to be one the most popular, be sure to have enough on hand so that you don’t run out before voting ends at 1:30 PM.
Check out this video about the contest from Nashville’s Channel 2, 2016. It features an introduction into how salsa is made, picking fresh ingredients from the garden, plus interviews with past contest winners. (More about salsa below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAMbupBvNkA
The Farm Market Day is held the third Saturday of the month April through October from 9 AM to 2 PM. Vendors set up under the huge covered dome, with a wide variety of items for sale, from local Amish and home-grown vegetables, to baked goods, jewelry and crafts, high quality yard sale items and more. Additional vendors are welcome, with a 5% sales fee collected at the end of the day by the Market organizers.
The Farm Market is directly adjacent to The Farm Store. Stop in for lunch. Browse the array of gift items, including The Farm’s world renowned colorful tie dye t-shirts.
The Farm Store, 100 Second Road, Summertown, TN 38483
More about Salsa
The word “salsa” is Spanish for “sauce,” but salsa as we know it today (a combination of chilies, tomatoes and other spices) can actually be traced to the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. The Spaniards first encountered tomatoes after their conquest of Mexico in 1519-1521. Aztec lords combined tomatoes with chili peppers, ground squash seeds and consumed them mainly as a condiment served on turkey, venison, lobster, and fish. This combination was subsequently called salsa by Alonso de Molina in 1571.
According to the hot sauce history, salsa manufacturing in Texas began in 1947 with David and Margaret Pace and their picante sauce.
Between 1985 and 1990, sales of salsa grew seventy-nine percent; and in 1991, salsa outpaced ketchup as the most popular condiment in America, now outselling ketchup 2-1. Today tortillas outsell hotdog and hamburger buns. Corn chips outsell potato chips. Burritos are as American as Apple pie.
Salsa Roja - red sauce. Made with cooked tomatoes and other ingredients
Pico de Gallo – Also called Salsa Cruda. Made with raw tomatoes and other raw ingredients
Chili Verde or Green Salsa – Made with Tomatillos, a small fruit that grows inside a paper-like outer covering
Chipotle – Smoked Jalapeno chili peppers - These really add a great flavor!
How Hot?
Picante – Spicy hot not Calliente’ – A hot temperature Pica Mucho – Hot on the tongue
The Basic Recipe
I basically start out with however many tomatoes I have ready to process and can. I then add in an appropriate amount of green peppers and onions, being sure tomatoes stay my primary ingredient. I chop the tomatoes, green pepper, onions, and even my garlic in a food processor to speed up my production.
Pulse, that is, quickly start and stop the food processor, about 5 or six times. Be careful not to over chop. You want the vegies to stay chunky. Lift the top cover off the processor to take a look. If most of the tomatoes are chopped to the right size, but a couple are still in extra large chunks, you can cut those last few by hand to finish up.
I do not have a formula for spices. It all depends on how much salsa you are cooking, and your own personal tastes. If you like a particular brand of store bought salsa, read the ingredients list on the label to get an idea on what you should add,
Be careful on the spices! A little can go a long way. You can always add more but you cannot take them back out.
Basic Ingredients
- Tomatoes
- Onion
- Garlic
- Green Pepper
- Jalapeno Peppers
Spices
- Salt
- Cumin (Essential for authentic flavor IMHO)
- Vinegar (I prefer organic apple cider vinegar)
- Sugar, honey or molasses (or not)
- Lime juice
Options
Sweet Corn Kernels
Fruit: Peaches. Mango, Pineapple
Tomato and Acid Balance
High acid levels are important, because the presence of acid inhibits the germination of botulism spores into the botulism toxin. Botulism spores can only develop into the botulism toxin in low acid, oxygen-free environments.
When you preserve something in a boiling water bath canner, you heat the jars and their contents to the boiling point (that temperature varies depending on your elevation, but at sea level the boiling point is 212 degrees F). That heat is enough to kill off the micro-organisms that can cause spoilage, mold, or fermentation, but it’s not enough to kill botulism spores (they require far higher temperatures).
Water bath – Boiling your filled canning jars covered in water for 20 minutes to kill all bacteria
