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The Mexican Kitchen Garden
Everyone is familiar with tacos, burritos, or tortillas, but Mexican cooking
extends far beyond that. the heart of Mexican cooking is the infinite variety of its salsas, and sauces that provide
much of the flavor. The most characteristic seasoning in Mexican cuisine is the chili (hot pepper), which adds flavors
to dishes ranging from Mole to salsa verde.
Chilies
Let's talk a bit about
chilies. Today there are so many varieties of chilies grown in Mexico and the United States, carrying varying degrees
of pungent spiciness and range in color from pale green to yellow, orange, red, purple, brown, or black. Sizes
range from large to small, but generally speaking, the smaller the pepper, the hotter the taste.
In 1902, pharmacologist
Wilbur Scoville mixed ground chilies, sugar, alcohol, and water and taste-tested their heat content. He gave each chili
a value depending on how much water was needed to eliminate the heat. Today's computerized technology rates peppers
from 0, the mildest, to 200,000, the hottest.
The heat in a chili is consolidated in the interior veins.
Yellowish orange veins indicate that the chili is extra hot. the seeds also contain a great deal of heat. Chilies
vary in their heat content from variety to variety and with the growing conditions. Hot dry areas produce hotter chilies.
To roast chilies, place the chilies on the grill. Turn them frequently until the skins are evenly blackened
and charred all over. Put chilies in a paper bag for a few minutes to cool and steam. Peel the charred skins and
then cut and remove veins and seeds.
Mexican cuisine also features corn, beans, tomatoes, tomatillos, onions,
squash, jicamas, and chayotes. The herb cilantro is also a staple in the Mexican kitchen.
You can
grow adequate quantities of all these in a 4-by-4-foot kitchen garden, in a portion of a flower bed or in a combination of
postage stamp beds and containers.
Below is a 4 x 4 bed. This drawing is from our Postage Stamp Kitchen
Garden Book, but we highly recommend you use the vegetable garden planner at www.plangarden.com. You'll be able to have a color designed plot.
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Authenic Seed Varieties Used in Mexican Cooking
BEANS
Black Turtle:
Heirloom 100 days. 24-28" plants. Black beans are great in soup, chili or refried. Used extensively
in Mexican cooking. ABU SHU VER
Bolita: Heirloom 100 days. Great-granddaddy
to the pinto bean. Tasty light brown bean. Low bush plant with short runners. PLA
Dark
Red Kidney: 95 days. Old-fashioned baking bean. Large, flat, green pods are filled with huge, red
kidney-shaped beans. Baked, boiled, Mexican dishes or in soups, this is a popular bean. SHU
Pinto:
Heirloom 90 days. Traditional bean of the southwest. Tolerated drought and poor soil. PLA SHU VER
Santa Maria Pinquito: Heirloom OP 90 days. Semi-bush.
Small blocky pink beans. Creamy texture doesn't break up during cooking. Good chili bean. NIC
Chili Peppers
You'll find a complete list of chili peppers under Hybrids and Heirlooms.
WARNING:
Wear kitchen gloves when working with the hottest chili's and never go near your face. If you
happen to touch your tongue, grab a glass of milk and drink until you've cooled down. Keep away from children.
Aji Cristal: 90-100
days. Hot, spicy, citrus-flavored Chilean native. Large plants bear high yields of thin, conical, waxy 1"
by 3 1/2" long. Harvest when creamy yellow and immature for best flavor. Peppers ripen to yellow to red-orange.
ABU
Ajidulce: OP Heirloom 11 days.
Venezuelan heirloom. Has same shape, size, color and aroma as Habanero, but is sweet spicy with only a trace of heat.
1" x 2", tapering at the stem end. Goes from green to orange-red to red when fully ripe. SOU
Ancho Poblano: OP 90 days. Basis for many Mexican dishes. Fry when green or use in enchilada
sauce or mole when ripened to a deep brick-red. ABU BOU BURP
Anaheim Chile:
OP 77 days. Mild pendant-shaped pepper that turns from green to dark red. Use fresh, canned, fried, or
dried. Karen likes this variety in her salsas. BURP HEN SOU
TOT
Ancho Poblano: OP 90 days. Basis for many Mexican dishes.
Fry when green or use in enchilada sauce or mole when ripened to a deep brick-red. ABU BOU BURP
Ancho San Martin: 75 days. Called Ancho when dried, dark green, 5 1/2" fruits are a favorite
for roasting. Just 500 to 1,000 Scovilles. TOT
Big Jim: 75-80 days. The
largest of the chile peppers, 10-12" long and weigh up to 4 ozs. Excellent for Chiles Rellenos. 24-36"
plant. TOT
Caribbean
Red Hot: OP Heirloom 110 days. Very hot! Comes from Yucatan
region and famous in hot and spicy salsas. 30" plant with 1- 1/12" peppers. BURP HEN NIC SHU TOT
Habanero: OP Heirloom 90-100 days. One of the hottest peppers of all. 12" plants yield 2"x1"
thin walled peppers that start out dark-green and ripen to a pink orange. ABU BOU BURP
NIC SOU TER TOT
Serrano Chili: 85 days. 30"
plants. 2", thin-walled fruits. Use in chili sauce, salsa, hot pepper vinegar and pickles. TOT
Serrano Tampiqueno: OP 75 days. One of Karen's
favorites for her salsas. Popular variety in Mexico. 2 1/2 x 1/2" peppers. 45" tall plant.
Heat intensifies as they ripen from green to bright red. BURP HEN NIC
SOU
CORN
Any
good American variety corn can be used to eat fresh, but if you want to grow corn for grinding I'll list a few varieties.
Black Mexican (Mexican Sweet, Black Iroquois): Heirloom
OP 76 days. The kernels are white at milk stage, change to bluish-black in the late milk stage. 7 1/2" x
1 1/2" ears with 8 rows of kernels. SHU SOU
Grinding Corn
From blue tortillas to posole, give these varieties
a try.
Black Aztec: OP Heirloom. Kernels are
white-purple at eating stage and turn gray-black at maturity. ABU VER
Blood Brothers:
85-100 days. 8 rows kernels range from crimson red to dusty earth to black. ABU
Bloody
Butcher: Heirloom 110 days. 8-10" ears of deep red with darker accents. 8-12' stalks.
Ornamental corn that can be eaten if picked young. Also good for flour and cornmeal. VER
Earth
Tones: 85-95 days. Ornamental corn. Easter-hued type with every 8-10" ear. Isolate.
Can be ground into flour. PAR
Fiesta: 95 days.
Indian flint corn. 7' stalks. 8" ears with kernels of red, blue, yellow, gold, white and purple.
No two are alike. PAR
Hopi Blue: OP Heirloom 75-110 days.
An Indian flint corn ground into flour by the Hopi pueblo people. Bushy 5' stalks bear 8-10" ears filled with
smooth blue kernels. BOU
Navajo Blue: 90 days. Dry corn.
Large, full ears of dark blue-purple to almost black corn. Grind into cornmeal for the famous southwestern blue corn
tortillas. PLA
Posole Dry Corn: 100 days. Dry corn. Large,
plump ears on vigorous drought tolerant plants. This variety is traditional used to make posole, the hominy of the Southwest.
PLA
Rainbow (Indian Flint, Squaw): OP Heirloom 105 days. A hard flint corn
used for grinding into corn meal. GUR HEN NIC SHU
Trucker's Favorite: Heirloom OP 80 days. Roasting
white corn. Heat and drought-resistant. 8-10 ears. If left to dry it can also be ground into homemade cornmeal.
HEN
Garlic
California
White: Firm, white-skinned. Excellent strong flavor.
Good keeping qualities. GUR HEN SHU TOT VER
Elephant
Garlic: OP Large bulbs weigh up to 1/2 pound or more. Mild and sweet. ABU
BURP GUR HEN SOU TOT VER
Inchelium Red: Heirloom OP.
From Colville Indian Reservation, Inchelium, WA. 15 cloves per bulb. Bulbs in excess of 3" in diameter. Stores
6-9 months. SOU TER
Spanish Roja: Heirloom mid-season. Hardneck.
Has true garlic flavor. ABU TER
Jicama
True
Jicama: (150 days) Also known as yam bean. The heart-shaped
tuber grows to about 6" X 6" and has light brown skin. Needs a lot of heat and a long growing season.
Tubers develop after flowering. BOU KIT
Onions
Exhibition:
105 days. Hefty Spanish type onion, straw-golden scales, mild and
extra sweet. BURP
Italian Blood Red Bottle: OP 120 days. Large bottle-shaped
onion that is spicy and tangy. NIC
Red Wethersfield: Heirloom OP 100 days.
Grown by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. Large, flattened globes with deep purple-red skin. Fairly firm, pink-tinged
white flesh with red concentric circles. Fine pungent flavor. Good keeper. Long day variety. SOU
Yellow Sweet Spanish: OP 110 days. Long day. Large, dark yellow globe-shaped bulbs.
Flesh is creamy-white and mild-flavored. Thick necks should dry well before harvest. Use for bunching when young.
Best used fresh. HEN SHU SOU VER
Pumpkin
Rouge Vif D'etampes (Cinderella): OP Heirloom 110 days. French variety.
Glowing mahogany orange color with pronounced lobes and flattened top. 10' vines sets up to 6 fruit 15" across.
ABU BOU BURP HEN NIC SHU SOU TER VER
Snackface: 95 days. Light orange pumpkin that weighs
1-2 pounds, packed with seeds that are hull-less and can be roasted. Semi-bush habit. SHU
Sorcerer: 90-100 days. All American Selection 2002. Traditional
pumpkin with deep-orange, medium-sized fruits. 15-25 pounds, 12" x14". Semi-vining. HAR
NIC VER
Squash
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