Garden Fresh Salsa (Home Canning)

Is there anything better than Garden Fresh Salsa?

I do love it fresh from the garden, but...

I also want to enjoy it long after the garden season.

So what do I do year after year?

I can salsa!

If you missed my post about Home Canning (Getting Started), click HERE.

Sure it's nice to pop open a jar of salsa on any night and eat it with tortilla chips.

It's also delicious in many casseroles and soups...gives it a little zip!

Since I have been canning, salsa is something that I make every year.

Although, I never make the same 'recipe'...

It depends on what I have harvested from my garden.

Use ingredients that you like...mix up the recipe to your liking, but 

do not mess with the processing method or processing time...

they are put in place for safety! 

Here's some of what I gathered last weekend.

Such pretty colors all mixed together with some staples from my pantry.

I like my salsa chunky and not too runny, so I adjust the amount of liquid that goes into each jar.

I have used a food processor and chopper in the past to dice up the ingredients, 

but in the end I prefer cutting everything up with a good knife.

I really like that it's less to clean also ;-)

Here's the ingredients I used for this batch of salsa, making 5 pints:

8 cups diced tomatoes - yellow and red, different varieties from my garden

2 green peppers

1 banana pepper

1 yellow onion

1 purple onion

3 cloves garlic

2 tbsp. fresh parsley
salt and pepper, to taste

1 cup cider vinegar

couple splashes of bottled lemon juice

Get the tomatoes ready:

• Start with cleaning all the produce.
• Mark an X on the bottom of the tomatoes, then put in boiling water for a minute or so, until you see 'cracks'.  
• Quickly dip into a bowl of ice water.
• Peel the tomatoes.  (By doing the above steps, this step is easier.)
• Cut around the core of the tomato, then dice it up to your desired size.
• Using a colander, drain some of the liquid off the tomatoes.

Combine all the ingredients:

To a large pot, add the diced tomatoes along with the green peppers, banana pepper, yellow and purple onions, and garlic, all diced.

Add some fresh parsley, salt, pepper, vinegar, and lemon juice.

Bring it all to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, check for air bubbles.  Leave 1/2 inch headspace.

Put lid and ring on jar.

Process pint jars for 15 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Once removed from the canner, let the jars cool.  Check to make sure they have all sealed.  Then store for later use.

Do you have a favorite salsa recipe?

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