Beware when making salsa

I have been spending some of my spare time looking through garden seed catalogues.

A friend told me that yellow pear tomatoes are one of the hottest items to grow in your garden. I am going to be putting up a small green house to start my plants in this year.

My daughter, Bridget, works for a nursery in Mankato and owns some frames from an old greenhouse.

We went to see how big the frames were over the weekend and Tom is going to haul them home in his truck. Bridget and her boyfriend, Lucas, have had gardens the past two years. Last year they grew a field of pumpkins and squash and sold them at the farmer's market in Mankato.

Lucas had never gardened until he met Bridget. He decided he wanted to have a garden after he spent a Sunday helping me plant pole beans.

Last year, Lucas, Bridget, my son Timmy and I made salsa together. Lucas wanted to make it with me, as he had never done it before. He had a grown a large amount of jalapeno peppers that he wanted to contribute to the homemade salsa. I had the tomatoes, green peppers, garlic, cilantro, onions and the rest of the ingredients. Bridget and Lucas drove over from Mankato on a Friday night in early fall to make the salsa. We set to work chopping up onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro and the peppers in an assembly line fashion.

We had the music turned up loud in the kitchen as we worked and we were in a festive mood. I was chopping up the jalapeno peppers.

Lucas said, "Be careful with those jalapeno peppers. Do you have any plastic gloves?"

I didn't have any plastic gloves but I took care to not touch my face or my mouth as I chopped up the peppers. I washed my hands after I was done chopping so the oils from the seeds wouldn't linger on my skin.

We were having a fun time. We drank wine and ginger ale while we worked. I had made fried chicken, which we were going to eat after we had the salsa in the jars, and they were processing in the hot water bath. Timmy decided to try eating some jalapeno peppers that were cut up.

"Whew!" he said after he nibbled on a small piece. "Those are too hot. Don't put too many in the salsa. I need some water."

I said, "You need to eat some corn chips or bread to get the hot pepper taste out of your mouth."

Timmy ate some chips and downed several glasses of water. Lucas laughed at Timmy and teased, "Oh, can't you take the hot peppers?"

Timmy rolled his eyes at him.

Then Lucas picked up some jalapeno peppers that were chopped up and ate them.

"They are hot," he said as he grabbed a handful of chips

We were almost finished with making the salsa and I started to cleanup the kitchen. Timmy went to the bathroom. He called me in and said that when he urinated he had a stinging feeling. I started to worry that maybe he had a urinary infection and told him to take a hot bath and maybe he would feel better.

I mentioned to Lucas and Bridget about Timmy's problem and Lucas said, "Oh, I know what's wrong with him. He should have washed his hands after he touched the hot peppers. The oils from the peppers were still on his hands when he went to the bathroom."

"Oh," I said relieved that Timmy didn't have a major problem.

Timmy took a hot bath and when he came I asked him how he felt. He said, "A lot better. I don't sting anymore."

We told him that he should have washed his hands before he went to the bathroom because he had touched the hot peppers. He was embarrassed, but relieved. Then Lucas went to the bathroom and came out and sat down at the kitchen table. He jumped up suddenly and looked sheepish. He said that he had done the same thing as Timmy.

"Go take a shower," I said.

Bridget and I laughed so hard. The salsa turned out great. But from now on Timmy and Lucas wash their hands thoroughly after they touch jalapeno peppers.