Fresh Garden Salsa

What do I like most about summer? Going out to my garden, feeling the dirt between my toes as I pick ripe vegetables. Tomatoes, pickles, zucchini,onions, yellow squash, green beans - we plant a bundle, which makes it even more exciting when each is ready to be picked.

One of my favorite things to make when all the right produce is ripe....SALSA. From the beginning, I've never followed a recipe, but just picked an assortment of goodies and put it in a bowl and taste tested it for what it needs a little more of. To me, it's delicious, but everyone has their likes and dislikes. Here's a little photo selection of what I put in my fresh garden salsa:

I chose to use grape and cherry tomatoes instead of regular-sized tomatoes. It's just a preference. I think that these tomatoes are sweeter and have more flavor, so even though it takes a long time to chop these up, it's worth it.

A few years ago, I went to Burley Park, an antique and collectibles market, and came across a man selling purple pepper plants (the plant on the right). I had never seen them before (neither had my mom or grandma). The man said that the fruit grows purple and it has heat. Being such a unique find, my grandma and I both picked up a plant.

Here's an up close view of the purple pepper. Each year my grandma and I harvest the seeds when the pepper turns red. We save them for the next year and when spring comes around, we plant them. I put a few plants in my garden, too, and they are thriving. They aren't as tall as the ones grown in a pot, but they have peppers on them.

This is what I put in the salsa:

-medium-sized bowl full of cherry and grape tomatoes
-1 onion
-4 banana peppers
-2 green peppers
-2 jalepenos
-3 purple peppers
-salt and pepper to taste

I cut the tomatoes into about five pieces. This took quite a long time, but it was well worth it.

When I started cutting the jalapenos, I wasn't sure if I wanted to use two of them because I didn't want the salsa to be too spicy. I cut up one into very small pieces and the second one was added as I taste tested it for heat.

The purple peppers are very small, so they were cut into very small pieces. You can't even see them in the final picture of the salsa. My dad ate a slice of a purple pepper and he immediately said his mouth was burning. They definitely have some heat, but bring a nice addition to the salsa.

As for the rest of the vegetables, cut them into chunks. Stir that baby up and taste test it. Need a little salt? Add it. Want a little more spice? Cut up some more jalapenos or purple peppers.

TA-DA! Delicious fresh salsa made entirely with vegetables from my garden!