EL PASO – On Labor Day I went to the Food Basket, bought a gunny sack full of hot green chile and had it roasted. This is an annual tradition. Looking to the winter and smelling the incomparable smell of roasting chiles today, it has to happen. Even when I think I will pass just this once, buy it when I need it. The smell curls up in your soul; it gets to you, the tradition. I have room in the freezer now. Five hours later, fire-roasted fingers, and a mess in the kitchen, I now have 18 quart size bags of peeled chiles, a gallon bag stuffed with “I’m too tired to peel any more, this one didn’t want to slip its skin, too curly to contend with” and a large plastic container of chopped green. On Tuesday, I pick tomatoes in the garden, gather up onions, jalapeños, serranos, garlic, cilantro, and limes. I put on my apron that announces El Paso/Cd. Juárez as the Mexican Food Capital of the World. Today I am learning to can salsa, from my neighbor Marion who, judging from her open shelf bookcase filled with Mason jars, appears to be an expert. I have purchased a giant canning pot and some new jars at a place called Do It in anticipation of this lesson. All this and my chopped green chile I take over to Marion’s. First, we roast tomatoes in the oven to make them easy to peel, and get the water in the canning pot warming. While the tomatoes are roasting, we go out to her garden to cut basil because, after the salsa is done, we are going to make a batch of pesto, yum. The garden is more than a garden; it is an organic sculpture, carefully tended.
