Tomatillo

Tomatillos sprawl, shrug off neglect, and load up with salsa verde makings from August to October. The one rule is two plants minimum, because a lone tomatillo flowers all summer and sets nothing.

Growing

Start alongside the tomatoes in late March and transplant after frost, always two or more so they can pollinate each other. Give each a 7 to 10 gallon bag or a corner of ground and expect a five-foot sprawl; a tomato cage delays the flop but nothing prevents it. It shrugs off the hot, dry weeks that make the tomatoes sulk. Harvest when the husk splits and the fruit fills it; ripe ones drop on their own, and fruit picked up off the ground is fine.

Varieties

Toma Verde is the early standard; Gigante fills the salsa pot faster; Purple is sweeter and good raw.

Pests

The three-lined potato beetle, which looks like a cucumber beetle that developed a taste for tomatillos, arrives in June; hand-pick adults and rub out the egg rows under leaves. The larvae carry their own droppings on their backs as a disguise, which makes them easy to find and unpleasant to squish. Gloves help.

In the kitchen

Husked, rinsed of their stickiness, broiled dark with onion and jalapeno, then blitzed: salsa verde. It freezes without complaint, so August surplus becomes January enchiladas.