Celebrate the culture of agriculture & share skills (Growing! Cooking! Eating!)

When I don't eat local grown on purpose.

I've spent the last 2 Saturdays going around to my favorite farmer's markets to amass enough tomatillos to put up some salsa verde. The other key ingredient, though, is decidedly not local to Ohio.

It's the time of year when the smell of roasting chiles permeates the air when I walk down to the grocery store in my little town. For a few brief and spicy weeks the Hatch chiles arrive in Dayton, trucked up from New Mexico, and Simon and I pick up a few quarts from our local grocery store.

The first year we lived in Ohio I bought the chiles for the convenience of having them roasted. While I do get a lovely assortment of Hungarian wax, jalapeño and serrano peppers in my CSA farm share, roasting them was not something I was interested in trying. Too easy to pickle pint after pint instead.

The second year the flavor of roasted Hatch chiles brought me back. Hot, but not 'make your eyeballs bleed' kind of heat, the flavor is delicious. Since the roasted chiles freeze so nicely, I use them year round. In fact, I thawed the last of the 2014 harvest for use in my first batch of salsa.

I've since made 3 more batches of salsa and I'd better stop--I don't think I can top the Peach/Yellow Plum/Roasted Hatch chile salsa.

Just like my desire to enjoy olive oil, tea, chocolate, avocados and bananas--Hatch chiles are another reason why I don't always eat local.

To see all the Hatch chile recipes I've got on the blog, please check out my Hatch Chile Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, and garden abundance.

Comment by Jeannette Bedard on September 8, 2015 at 12:42pm: I totally agree with your logic.

Comment by Kirsten Madaus on September 11, 2015 at 11:15am: Thanks, Jeannette! Great minds ;)

Comment by Janet Buechler on September 27, 2015 at 6:44pm: Do you have a specific recipe for the peach/yellow plum/hatch chili salsa? I couldn't locate it on your site. I love peach salsas and I have a source for yellow plums. Sounds delicious.

Comment by Kirsten Madaus on September 28, 2015 at 2:26pm: Janet, My recipe won the contest over at Garden Dine Love! You can find it here: http://gardendinelove.com/winning-peach-recipe/

Enjoy!

Comment by Janet Buechler on September 30, 2015 at 10:43pm: Thank you. I will have to save this. Unfortunately the peaches and hatch chilies are gone for the season, but there is always next year!

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