Royann Petrell, who grows endless amounts of tomatoes alongside her husband, Sylvain Alie, as co-owners of Steller Raven Ecological Farm, says she sought for years to recreate a restaurant salsa she had while working in Mexico as a food engineer. Now it’s yours, too, and you can modify the spice levels to your liking. 

3 ½ pounds Roma or paste tomatoes
2 medium fresh poblano chile peppers
1 ½ dried chile pasilla peppers
1 dried chile chipotle pepper
1 ½ bulbs garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
½ cup finely chopped onions
⅓ cup bottled lime juice
½ fresh habanero or cayenne pepper, seeded if desired
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon cumin
Makes 3 ½ cups

1. Slice tomatoes into quarters and place in a pot. Cook until the tomatoes are soft. In batches, place them into a blender, purée, then pass through a sieve to remove the seeds and skins.
2. Return to the pot, boil gently, uncovered, for about 1/2 hour or until tomatoes are reduced to 3 cups.
3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Quarter the poblano peppers, removing the stems and seeds. Open the dried chiles and remove seeds. Place peppers skin side up on 1 foil-lined large cookie sheet. Cut off the top 1/2 inch of each garlic bulb to expose ends of individual cloves. Leaving garlic bulbs whole, remove any loose papery outer layers. Place each garlic bulb, cut side up, on a double thick square of foil. Drizzle olive oil over garlic bulbs. Bring edges of foil up and around each bulb, folding edges together to loosely enclose. Place garlic packets directly on the oven rack.
4. Roast peppers alongside garlic for 20 to 25 mins or until pepper skins are charred and garlic cloves feel soft when carefully pressed. Cool garlic on a wire rack. Immediately bring edges of foil up around peppers and fold edges together to enclose; set aside to cool. Squeeze out garlic cloves into a food processor. Add a bit of tomato, and process until smooth. Use a sharp knife to loosen edges of skins; gently pull off skins in strips and discard. Place into the food processor with a little more tomato, and chop.
5. Add the mixture from the food processor to the pot of tomatoes. Add onions, lime juice, finely chopped habanero or cayenne (using gloves to protect your hands), salt, coriander, and cumin. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, until reduced to 3 ½ cups.
6. Let cool and serve with your favorite tortilla chips. 

Editor’s note: The above was modified from a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens Canning, Preserving, Freezing, and Drying (2014 edition).

Amara Farm founder Arzeena Hamir, who grows a variety of potatoes along with the best carrots Zach has ever tasted — per the “Root Vegetables” episode of This Is a Gardening Show — presents this ultra-simple mashed potato recipe. 

Potatoes (boiling-type potatoes like the Sieglinde variety)
Butter or olive oil
Chopped garlic
Sour cream
For all ingredients, use as little or as much as you’d like. 

1. Boil your potatoes to partially cook them for about 15–20 minutes, depending on the potatoes’ size. They should be firm when you stick a knife in, not falling apart.
2. Drain the water and then arrange the potatoes on an oven sheet. Using the back of a bowl or large spoon, “smash” the potatoes down so that they’re flattened.
3. Next, drizzle with butter or olive oil and sprinkle with chopped garlic and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. The potato edges should be golden and crispy. 
4. Serve with sour cream or as a side to your main dish.

Foragers Benjamin Patarin and Célia Auclair, who co-own wild-food shop Forest for Dinner, crafted this recipe. Pour it all over your favorite pasta. 

34 grams dried morel mushrooms
½ cup sherry wine, or any red cooking wine
1 ½ cups chicken stock
Olive oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper
Enough pasta for 4 people
A few pieces of asparagus (optional)
Serves four people

1. Soak the morels for about 10 minutes in the sherry wine and chicken stock combined. Once fully rehydrated, strain the morels and set them aside — and don’t discard that soaking liquid. It’s packed with flavor.
2. Build the sauce. Warm a pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Add the finely chopped onion and the strained morels. Cook until golden brown. Pour in the reserved soaking liquid and let it reduce over medium heat until nearly evaporated. Add the cream and continue reducing until the sauce is velvety and rich. Season generously with salt and pepper.
3. Cook pasta to your liking just before you're ready to plate. Spoon the morel cream sauce generously over the pasta. For an optional garnish, grill asparagus and place on top.

Danielle Bellefleur, who runs the apple orchard Fruit Forest Farm, says this recipe is a lighter take on a classic crumble. The apple juice (or sauce) replaces butter and sugar typically used in a crumble, while the maple syrup adds a crunchy, smoky finish.

Filling
6 large apples
1 cup of blackberries
2 tablespoons maple syrup (or sugar)
1 teaspoon flour 
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Oat topper
½ cup of butter
½ teaspoon cinnamon  
2 cups of rolled oats
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¾ cup of apple juice/sauce
Makes enough for a 9-inch pan

1. Prepare the filling: Chop the apples into 1-inch chunks. You can leave the skin on for extra fiber. Mix with blackberries and coat with remaining filling ingredients.
2. Toast the oats: Melt butter in the pan, then add cinnamon and oats. Cook until the oats absorb the butter.
3. Add the flour and stir well. Add the apple juice and let cook until the juice is well absorbed. Remove from heat.

Assembly:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease your pan with butter and flour, then spread the filling evenly across the bottom. Press the oat topping over the filling. Cover completely. Bake for 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

This one — from Joyce McMenamon, founder of compost bin company Speedibin — is a meal for your garden, so do try this at home … but please don’t eat it. 

A compost bin (ideally critter-proof)
A kitchen pail for kitchen scraps
A garden fork
A screen if you want your finished compost to look stunning

Greens: Kitchen pail full of kitchen scraps, added weekly, daily, or whenever the pail is full
Browns: A garbage can full of leaves, straw, shredded paper, wood chips, or some available carbon source
Yard waste
Water
A trowel full of earth from the garden

1. Put a layer of browns in the bottom of your compost bin.
2. Add a pail full of kitchen scraps.
3. Add yard waste, grass clippings, anything else that was once alive.
4. Sprinkle in a trowel full of soil from the garden. This will add decomposing microbes and possibly some worm cocoons.
5. Top off with a layer of browns.
6. Water the whole thing so that it is nice and damp.
7. Every week or day or whenever your kitchen pail is full, add it to the pile, top with leaves, and add water if needed to keep it damp.
8. When you have yard waste to add, toss it in. Break up large pieces to about 2 inches. The smaller the pieces, the faster the decomposition.
9. When the bin is full, let it sit for a few weeks (or a few months if it’s winter).
10. Test if it’s done by sniffing. If it smells earthy, it’s ready.
11. Shovel out the finished compost. If there is stuff that doesn’t seem “marinated” enough yet, toss it back in the bin for a second batch.
12. Top your garden beds with 1 inch of compost.