Homemade Salsa Adds Flair and Nutritive Value

Any High Country gardener knows the rain has made this a bad year for tomatoes. Fortunately, I was able to purchase Roma tomatoes at the Watauga market last weekend for a salsa cooking demonstration. Although any kind of tomato may be used, Romas are the meatiest and hold up when canning salsa.

Salsa definitely adds nutritive value to tortilla chips, with ½ cup of it qualifying as a serving of vegetables. Boneless chicken or pork tenderloin topped with salsa makes a quick, elegant dinner entrée. And of course, it’s great with any kind of Mexican food.

This recipe is almost impossible to stop eating on tortilla chips. Since the peppers are seeded, it is pretty mild, and even children love it.

Tomato and green chili salsa

Makes 6 pints

Ingredients

6 cups peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes

6 cups seeded, chopped long green chili peppers

1 ½ cup chopped onions

2 jalapeno pepper, seeded, finely chopped

12 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3 cups vinegar (5 percent acidity)

1 teaspoon ground cumin, optional

4 teaspoons oregano leaves, optional

3 teaspoons salt

Do not touch your face while handling chilies. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before touching your face. Wash and rinse canning jars; keep hot until ready to use. Prepare lids according to manufacturer’s directions. Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan, and heat, stirring frequently, until mixture boils. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Wipe top of jar with clean cloth, adjust lids and process in a boiling water canner: 15 minutes at 0 to 1,000 feet altitude; 20 minutes at 1,001 to 6,000 feet. Start timing when water (1 – 2 inches over jars) starts boiling.

If you aren’t able to find tomatoes or would like a tropical flair, try this recipe. Mango is available in stores at a reasonable price.

Mango salsa

Makes 6 pints

Ingredients

12 cups diced unripe mango (about 7 or 8 large, hard green mangoes)

3 cups diced red bell pepper

1 cup finely chopped yellow onion

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

4 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

4 teaspoons finely chopped ginger

2 cups light brown sugar

2 ½  cups cider vinegar (5 percent acidity)

1 cup water

Wash and rinse canning jars; keep hot until ready to use. Prepare lids according to manufacturer’s directions. Wash all produce well. Peel and chop mangoes into ½- 1

inch cubes. Dice bell pepper into ½-inch pieces. Finely chop yellow onions. Combine all ingredients in an 8-quart Dutch oven or stockpot. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce to simmering, and simmer 5 minutes.

Fill hot solids into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½ -inch headspace. Cover with hot liquid, leaving ½ -inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars, then apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water bath: 10 minutes at 0 to 1,000 feet altitude; 15 minutes at 1,001 to 6,000 feet. Start timing when water (1 – 2 inches over jars) starts boiling. Let cool, undisturbed, for 12 to 24 hours, and check for seals.

Margie Mansure, M.S., R.D. is a registered dietitian/nutritionist and extension agent with NC Cooperative Extension. She offers personalized classes to improve the health of citizens in Watauga County through worksites, schools and community groups. margie_mansure@ncsu.edu (828)264-3061

It's Fair Time

Share the bounty of the summer.  What has kept you engaged and creative this year?  The Mountain State Fair is an opportunity to display your talents.  All sorts of fun will be taking place at the Mountain State Fair on September 6-15 at the WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher.  Rides, foods, cooking contests, entertainment and exhibits will be in store for visitors.  Exhibits range from crafts, photographs, art, and jewelry to honey products, fruits and vegetables and animals.  While attending the fair is lots of fun, getting your entries down there beforehand may be inconvenient.  The Pony Express picks up your non-perishable items and delivers them to the fair so all you need to do is go down and see all the goodies.  Your items will be delivered back after the fair, along with any ribbons you may have earned.  You can find the whole catalog online now here.

Items are due to the Cooperative Extension office by August 19.   Be sure to include an entry form.  See here for Pony Express details.

Youth are encouraged to participate.  Perhaps they made lots of crafts this summer or grew some beautiful veggies.  See here for a summary of youth entries. 

Pesky Blackberry Foes

From: Emma Lookabaugh, Plant Disease and Insect Clinic, and Barbara Shew, Extension Plant Pathologist 

Here in North Carolina, blackberry season is in full swing! For many North Carolinians, that means it is the perfect time to stock up their freezer or pull out those Ball jars and preserve some tangy blackberry jam. Blackberry season brings back sweet summertime memories of riding my bike down the road to the blackberry thicket at the edge of the woods, gorging myself with fresh, juicy berries (probably picking up a few chiggers in the process), and heading home with purple stains on my hands, face, and clothes. Whether you prefer to pick your own berries or buy a pack from the local Farmer’s Market, we can all agree that blackberries are a signature snack for a late summer’s day. Unfortunately, blackberries, like all things delicious, come with their fair share of pests and diseases that impact fruit production.

This summer, we have seen two similar but different diseases on blackberry samples: orange rust on blackberry and black raspberry and leaf and cane rust on blackberry. Orange rust is typically the more devastating disease because it can become systemic, moving from leaves into other parts of the plant. The orange rust fungus has two forms, Arthuriomyces peckianus (formerly Gymnoconia peckiana) and Gymnoconia nitens, which differ only in the number of spore stages produced. Pustules full of orange-yellow spores develop on the undersides of leaves in late May and early June. These spores are blown to healthy leaves and infect when humidity is high and leaves are wet. Heavily infected leaves may die and defoliate. Once the plant is infected, the rust fungus becomes systemic. It grows down the infected shoot, into the crown, and then can enter newly formed roots. Symptoms associated with shoot infections include proliferation of shoots, weak and spindly canes, and lack of spines on the shoots. In mid-to-late summer, brownish black pustules that contain dark teliospores develop on the undersides of lower leaves. Teliospores do not infect, but germinate to produce basidiospores that can infect new buds or shoots, or the teliospores can overwinter on leaves before producing basidiospores the following year. Infected plants remain infected throughout their lifetime and do not recover. Orange rust does not kill the plant outright, but infected plants are completely lost to production due to their inability to produce blossoms and berries.

 Cane rust on blackberry

Controlling orange rust is largely achieved through cultural practices. Plant disease-free stock plants, eradicate diseased plants and wild berries in the surrounding area, and completely remove and destroy the entire plant as soon as symptoms develop on canes or leaves. Thin healthy plants to promote air circulation and to reduce leaf wetness. Leaf and cane rust is caused by the fungus Kuehneola uredinis. Leaf and cane rust produces yellow spores in pustules that split the bark of infected canes, causing them to become weak. The pustules can also be found on the undersides of leaves. Diseased old canes should be pruned after fruiting. Alternate-year fruiting programs can help reduce disease pressure and routine fungicide spray programs may be effective in preventing new infections. Care must be taken to differentiate systemic orange rust from leaf and cane rust because leaf and cane rust does not require drastic removal methods to control disease. Identification of the rust pathogen requires a microscope and considerable knowledge in rust morphology. Suspect samples should be sent to the Plant Disease and Insect Clinic for a formal diagnosis.

Thermal Pollution and Snot Otters

RiverGirl Outfitters new Hellbender on display in Todd, NC

If you’ve ever dipped into a stream in the High Country you know how cold the water is, no matter what time of year it is!  That cold water is really important for many of our native fish, salamanders, and other aquatic life.   The secretive hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) that lives in our cold headwater streams can be compared to the “canary in the coal mine”.  If hellbender populations decline that can mean that our water quality is also declining. 

You may not think that hot water would be considered a pollutant, but a few degrees can be the difference between life and death to temperature sensitive organisms like the hellbender.   Hellbenders are typcially found in pristine streams of the mountains and foothills of the eastern United States however, they do have cousins in China and Japan known as giant salamanders that can actually grow up to 5-6 feet long!

Our Appalachian Hellbender aka, "snot otter", "devil dog", "mud-devil", "grampus", "Allegheny alligator", or "river dog" by locals, can grow to over a whopping 2 feet long!  But their populations have decreased in many places because of sediment runoff and habitat changes.  Temperature and dissolved oxygen plays a really important role in the health of the hellbender, and as stream side trees and shrubs are cut down, sunlight warms the water temperature.  Stormwater runoff also contributes to temperature increases.  When it rains on a hot rooftop or parking lot, heat is transferred to the water which typically runs into a nearby stream.  Stormwater runoff has shown to increase water temperature significantly, decreasing the chances for hellbender and trout survival. 

Kelly McCoy of RiverGirl Fishing Company recently acquired the High Countries first bred in captivity hellbender!  She received a permit from the state to have a live hellbender on display in a chilled tank at RiverGirl Fishing Company.  RiverGirl’s new little buddy is an “Ambassador” for all the hellbenders out there.  Once you lay your eyes on it (I say it, because they won’t be able to tell the sex for another few years) you’ll fall in love!   Right now, they feed the little buddy crawfish, minnows, and nymphs, but as it grows, mice will become part of the menu. 

The chilled tank stays at a constant 57°F with a pH of 6.8-7.0.   Every week the hellbender is weighed and monitored for health.  This hellbender is from eggs collected from the Davidson River, which were transported to the Fort Worth Texas Zoo, where it was born and raised until coming back home to North Carolina this summer.  Kelly recently captured on video the hellbender molting its dull layer of skin, then eating the skin and turning into a brilliantly glossy "snot otter".  You can stop by RiverGirl Fishing Company in Todd daily from 10am-5pm to view our new little friend of High Country Rivers!