Community | Garden | Salsa

I very much enjoy cooking, but I'm not great at it. And I make salsa regularly now, but it's not something super practiced (I hadn't even had salsa until I was 21 and introduced to homemade salsa by my friend Ernesto's family friend Madeleine). But none of this stopped me from entering the SF Food Wars "Salsa Champion-Chip" on 9/12. My schtick... "community garden salsa" - a heirloom tomato, white corn salsa with tomatoes all grown with at our community garden in Mountain View.

It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon at the Ferry Plaza in San Francisco, and the competition was stiff. I did not have high expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback on my salsa and the reaction to the idea of actually knowing where the food came from. Tomatoes, garlic and cilantro from our community garden. White corn from G&S Farms in Brentwood. Red onions from Full Belly Farm in Guinda. Jalapenos from Happy Quail Farm in East Palo Alto.

People were attracted to the personal connection with the food. They visibly perked up when I said that I and my daughter grew the tomatoes - that they were actually talking to the person who grew what they were eating. They took an interest in what a community garden is - and seemed somewhat surprised that people like you and me could growth their own food. They asked about the other farms that I bought the other ingredients from - and I happily told them about how I regularly see the folks from Fully Belly and Happy Quail at the Palo Alto farmers' market, and about the first time I was offered a sample raw white corn from G&S and how it tasted like candy, just like they said it would. Hooray for the opportunity to connect people to their food!