Canning Salsa

This morning, I woke up, made coffee, went to the garden, and oh my word……the tomatoes were ripe. Not just a few cherry and one or two early girls like usual, but whoa, I got 15lbs or so of tomatoes today! And my pepper plants were leaning they were so heavy with peppers. So it was time to make yet again, some salsa. I managed 8 pints instead of 6 half pints this time.

So lets get to how to do this!

 These are new jars, lids and rings, so one jar of salsa cost me $1.25. Next year, I’ll have to buy new lids only and a jar of salsa will cost about 30¢ each. Can’t beat that price for 16oz of homemade salsa.

 

 

What you need:

• Tomatoes - about 15 lbs
• Seasonings: Please see my salsa recipe if you want to see how it’s made
• 2 cups Lemon juice (if you make your own seasoning)
• 15oz can of tomato paste. This thickens up your salsa and gives it body.

Equipment

• 1 Water bath Canner 
• Pint (or smaller) canning jars (
• Lids - thin, flat, round metal lids with a gum binder that seals them against the top of the jar.
• Rings - metal bands that secure the lids to the jars. 
• Jar grabber
• Lid lifter
• 1 large pot.
• Large spoons and ladles
• Jar funnel

You can find the jar funnel, lid lifter, jar grabber and a spacer (which we don’t need here) in a kit at Walmart or your local discount store for about $10 or under.

 

The first thing you need to do is prepare a pot of boiling water. Just like we did with the peaches, you’ll dip in your tomatoes, let them sit in the boil bath for 45 seconds, and then put them in a bowl of ice water. After a couple of minutes, the skins will slide right off. Likewise, you can always used canned whole peeled tomatoes, but they don’t taste as good in my humble opinion, and it’s certainly not as cheap.

After your skins are off, we need to slice the tomatoes in half (between the stem and bottom across the core) and shake the seeds and water out. Some people are anal about this, I don’t mind a few seeds. As you’re doing this, dropped your seedless tomato halves into a colander in the kitchen sink. Stick a bowl under them to collect the juice. This is prime, fresh tomato juice which can be used for a number of things.

Next gather your items for seasoning. I used this time, 1 cup of lime juice, 1 cup of lemon juice (I like the different flavors together, you can use 2 of either kind), 4 cloves of pressed garlic, 3 bell peppers, 7 jalapenos seeded and chopped, 5 medium onions (we like our onions) and a handful of fresh cilantro. I chopped both the peeled tomatoes, and then also diced some fresh tomatoes as I like both in our salsa. I had about 8lbs of peeled and 2lbs of fresh.

Now you dump it all in a pot on the stove, and  mix it up. Put it on medium heat and heat it up, when it comes to a boil (or as I call it “splash stage” because it’s not really a liquid), turn it down and let it simmer for 30 min.

It’s time now, to get our water bath together. Fill your pot and put it on the stove, on high heat. Put in your jars and lids and rings. This will sanitize them to prevent spoilage.

After your salsa is done simmering, take your jars out using the jar lifter and then using the funnel fill them up to the bottom of the funnel (this is also about 1/4 inch from the top). Then using the lid lifter, grab a lid out for each jar. Then using the lid lifter, grab a ring out and place it on each jar. Now, hand tighten each ring on the jar.

Place your jars back in ten boiling bath with the jar lifter and put the lid on your water bath canner. You'll want to boil them for 15 minutes if you’re under 1000ft altitude and 20 min if your at 1000 ft to 6000ft like I am.

When they’re done, simply use the jar lifter and place the jars on a towel of some kind so they don’t heat up your counter and make spots, and let them cool overnight. The seals will seal sometime in the next hour or so. Before you go to bed, if any haven’t sealed put them in the fridge and use it within the next month. Also be sure not to bump or jostle the jars whilst their hot for fear of cracking or breaking them.

Profit from your garden veggies!