Winter de Gallo Salsa

Every September we stockpile salsa .  We can all of it with the goal of having enough jars for an average of 5-6 per month until we can make fresh salsa again.  Thus we canned just over 50 jars.

Fresh salsa is always the preferred option, assuming it’s made with delicious local ingredients.  Based on that restriction fresh salsa is generally limited to a span of about 3-4 months, with true pico de gallo salsa only happening for a couple of months.

So I’m okay with eating my canned salsa.  My whole family enjoys it and when we open a jar it typically gets eaten in one sitting.

Recently we found a game changer.

Apples.

Ontario’s apple growers  are very adept at preserving their apples into the winter months allowing us consumers the opportunity to eat a delicious local fruit throughout these lean months.

Ontario farmers are always quite good at coaxing plants to grow in greenhouses and hothouses throughout these cold and sun-starved months.  The most recent discovery of ours was cilantro.

One day for lunch a couple weeks ago I decided to make a salsa with the apples and cilantro we had got at the Kitchener Market a few days before.  I through in a couple frozen jalapeños that we grew, some local red onion, a dash of lime juice (not local…) and dash of apple cider vinegar.  I think I could have left out the lime juice to stay pure to my local ideals but I wanted to have at least one classic flavor on board.

The result is an amazing, crunchy, flavorful salsa that really makes it easy to imagine the summer that is still a long ways off.  And thanks to the lime juice and vinegar the apples stay nice a fresh so this salsa can be saved in the fridge for several days without losing quality.

Now, I have to admit this is not the first time I put apples in a salsa – see The Pleaple have Spoken.  But it is the first time I’ve realized we could eat a fresh Pico de Gallo style salsa in the cruel cold heart of winter.  So, our lives have been changed, and for the better.

This post was originally written for Bailey’s Local Foods , which is where you can find the recipe.  However, a recipe is not super necessary for this salsa as you can simply experiment and find a ratio of ingredients that works for you!