Last night, after dealing with the dreaded tobacco hornworms, I saw that I was starting to get behind on the tomato harvest, so I ended up picking some vegetables for a salsa for breakfast. Most of my tomato plants are in production for tomolives, a favorite recipe of ours, are mainly cherry, grape, and even smaller varieties of tomatoes, such as the elusive Everglades tomato.

After grabbing some of the ripe tomatoes, I moved to my “tomato jungle”, the raised bed that was planted with peppers, only to be overgrown with volunteer tomatoes. However, some of the pepper plants were established enough to have survived (so far) the overgrowth. Digging around under the tomatoes, I found several jalapeno and Serrano peppers that were perfect, so I added them to my bowl.

The next stop was the the northwestern most section of my garden, and also the most shaded, for some garlic chives. For those of you that know what “ramps” are, you will appreciate how close garlic chives resemble ramps in smell and taste. Since I cannot get ramps locally, these are a regular plant in my gardening. I snipped off several tops for my immediate use, leaving the bulbs since they will regrow leaves. I planted these almost a year ago and have done this with these same plants many times. A renewable resource!

So I now had the three main ingredients..but our cilantro was devastated by a chicken raid a few weeks earlier, so I had none ready to harvest (though I do have seedlings coming up). I wanted to add some other flavor or texture, so decided to take a hint from a good Thai friend, and use green, unripe mango. (Yeah, that’s what I said when I first heard her say that.) So I picked one that was being crowded and added it to my bowl. Into the kitchen to wash everything and start the assembly.

Home Grown Garden Fresh Green Mango Salsa

• Finely chop the garlic chives
• Quarter the tomatoes, then slice each quarter in half
• Cut the ends off of the mango so that it will stand upright. Slice off each side, leaving the seed in the center. Peel off the green skin, cut into long strips, then dice. This is the crunch for the salsa. (See notes below!!!)
• Put on some rubber gloves, optional, but don’t cry to me about “IT BURNS! IT BURNS!”.
• Dice the hot peppers.
• Combine all ingredients.
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Add lime juice to taste. We stock lime juice powder from Firehouse Pantry, and had no limes, so I used about a tablespoon of that. Who says prepping is only for emergencies?
• The salt and lime juice powder will start to draw out the liquids from the tomatoes, giving you all the water that is needed for a proper salsa. Let it chill for a while, I opted for overnight.

The next morning, gather your free-range eggs (you DO have free range chickens, right?), fry them to your liking in butter or bacon grease, and top with your fresh green mango salsa. Wonderful!

I took the remaining salsa, added in a chopped up a mozzarella cheese stick, and ate the mixture as a salad tonight with dinner. Also fantastic…just no way for me to make my won cheese from scratch 🙂

That leads me to this – I said “everything”, however, I didn’t grow the salt or pepper (though I’ve made salt from sea water and papaya seeds make a great pepper substitute), the lime juice powder was purchased, as well as the butter. So its not ALL from my back yard, but its a damned-fine start to a self-sufficient breakfast, one our forefathers would approve of.

This proves that in reality, no man is an island, no matter how much we want to isolate ourselves, we WILL need others. While you are growing your vegetables and raising your chickens, be sure to also grow your relationships with other families that you can trust. A circle of trusted friends is a far more important asset in troubled times than a yard full of tomatoes and chickens. Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Be safe. And eat more salsa!

Notes:

Be aware that some folks are allergic to the green mango skin and sap (due to urushiol, the same substance found in poison ivy), so plan accordingly – rubber gloves may be a good idea before this step, you’ll want them for the next step anyway. I had a small rash break out on my wrist today from it, but I rarely have any issues, and soap and water was all I needed to make the itch go away and the healing start. My brother, Dave, would not be so lucky, but since he doesn’t read this, he’s on his own 😛