Canning Salsa

Fall is fast approaching and I was wondering if I was ever going to be able to make salsa this year.  Last year I had salsa on my shelves by the end of July, but here we are at the beginning of September and I am just now making the first batch of salsa for the year.  The tomatoes have been very slow to start ripening and I have been throwing them into a bag in the freezer as I harvest them.  This week they decided to ripen enough for a whole batch of salsa which calls for 10 cups of tomatoes.

The recipe also calls for 5 cups of sweet peppers.  I used mostly large green bell peppers, but threw in some sweet chili peppers too.

 The 5 cups of onions that went into the salsa were the small or damaged onions from my harvest that needed to be used first.  Preserving them in salsa is a good way to make sure they get used before they go bad so I waste less of my hard earned crops.

This was the first jalapeno harvest of the season and I picked the biggest and thickest ones I could find and chopped up 2 1/2 cups of them and added them to the pot. I also threw in a couple tablespoons of cilantro and salt and topped it all off with apple cider vinegar.

Once I had all the ingredients chopped up and in the pot I started to heat the whole mixture up, stirring it all the while.  It was a colorful batch of salsa fresh from the garden.

After it came to a boil I continued to stir the pot while it simmered for another ten minutes.  While I was preparing the salsa I had set up my canner and jars and they were hot and ready to go by the time the salsa was cooked enough.  One by one I filled the jars and set them back in the canner where they boiled for twenty five minutes.  When time was up I let them cool down for ten more minutes before I removed them from the water bath.  I ended up with eight pints of fresh salsa total (plus one not totally full jar in the fridge) with many more on their way before the season in over.  I think I might need to replenish my pint jar stash soon because the tomatoes are going to start ripening in droves over the next few weeks.  That means there will be lots of salsa and tomato sauce in my future.