Texas Tomato Lover's Handbook

7. Tomato Relatives

157 t o M A t o R e L A t I V e s Tomato Relatives It would be a rare tomato lover who didn’t enjoy some of the tomato kinfolk —peppers, eggplants, tomatillos, and potatoes are the most obvious. The tomato also has some “black sheep” relatives like bull nettle and the many solanaceous weeds that plague our pastures and cattle lots. Suffice it to say that there are toxins in even the edible species but not in the parts we consume. For example, tomato foliage isn’t good for you, but for most folks the fruits are delicious and nutritious. Potato tubers are good, but don’t eat the small green fruits that occasionally form. Generally the foliage of solanaceous plants is not edible, and avoid the entire plant of weed relatives. PEPPERS Peppers come in a great variety of colors, shapes, sizes, and flavors. Perhaps the easiest way to divide them is into hot peppers and sweet peppers . Most households don’t need a lot of either category, but some, like the NuMex chiles or Ramshorn peppers, are great to put up in the freezer for use all winter long, and a few bags of chopped-up and frozen bells t e X A s t o M A t o L o V e R ’ s H A n D B o o K 158 are nice to have for flavoring. Quite a few Texas households consider a few jars of pickled jalapeños a necessity. Some chiltepin pepper sauce or a shelf full of home canned taco sauce makes the winter more pleasant while we wait for the next crop of tomatoes and peppers to come in. Peppers cannot be planted into the garden as early as tomatoes—they can be stunted by cold weather—so wait for at least four weeks after the average last frost date before setting them out in the garden (March to April in most areas of Texas). Then they need heavy fertilization—almost to the point of burning them. The theory is to get as much early production as possible before it gets too hot. The plants will usually survive the heat of summer and even produce a few small peppers, and then they will come back for a good fall harvest. Mildly hot or spicy peppers include most of the NuMex green chiles like Big Jim (10, 13, 14, 20) and others like Fajita Hybrid (20)—a bell with a bit of sizzle—along with Mariachi Hybrid (2, 6, 7, 16, 19, 20) and the slightly hotter Mexibel (20). Some of the mild jalapeños such as Fooled You (6, 8, 19, 20) and Señorita (17, 19, 20) could be included. seriously hot peppers include Cayenne (widely available), Chiltepin or Bird’s Eye (8, 10, 11, 19, 20), Mucho Nacho (2, 7, 19, 20) or El Jefe (3, 16) jalapeños, Hungarian Yellow Wax (1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 22), Inferno hot banana (21), Scotch Bonnet (19), Serrano (widely available ), Tabasco (1, 6, 8, 10, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22), Yellow Aji (6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 19), and, of course, the habanero (widely available), which are guaranteed to “light your fire.” Got to have the hottest? Look for the Indian (Assam) Naga Jolokia (search Amazon, eBay, and specialty pepper seed sources)—supposedly twice as hot as the hottest habanero. It is also called Bhut Jolokia or the Ghost pepper since you may run off into the sunset and disappear after eating one. This pepper is also known in Bangladesh , Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. sweet non-bell peppers such as Carmen (2, 3, 16, 19, 20), Red Marconi (1, 11, 19), and Spanish Spice (19, 20) are typical of the long sweet peppers that are great to use fresh, grilled, or fried. In fact, they are 159 t o M A t o R e L A t I V e s Hot peppers come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and degrees of heat measured by Scoville units. Jalapeño, Padron, and habanero are represented here. t e X A s t o M A t o L o V e R ’ s H A n D B o o K 160 guaranteed to make a Philly cheesesteak sandwich come to life Texas style. If these sweet peppers don’t get it done, then toss in...