It’s the season of canning and preserving! We bought some “salsa” tomatoes this past Tuesday from a local farm, and now that they’re ripe, we decided to make a batch of salsa that we can enjoy this winter. This is the first time I’ve ever made salsa to can. It tastes great already! We used our homegrown peppers and garlic and onion from the farmers market. You can really tell the difference with homegrown!
We are using peppers from our garden – jalapeno, kitchen lemon and tamale peppers. The lemon peppers are quite spicy so I only used one.
I chopped a large onion, 3 large garlic cloves and a few of our garden peppers. I tossed that all into the pot.
I added tomato paste, pickling salt, cumin and chili powder. I stirred that and left it to the side.
We need to scald the tomatoes so they’re easy to peel. We toss them into a bowl and pour boiling water over top. We let it sit for a few minutes – until we can see the peels split – then we dump the boiling water out and pour cold water over top.
Peel the tomatoes and chop them. I added 4 cups of tomatoes and the vinegar to the onion mixture.
Then I chopped the rest in the tomatoes – we needed to scald a few more. I then added the remaining 5 cups of tomatoes and set on the stove to cook.
Bring to a boil. Once boiling, simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t burn.
Here’s the salsa after 30 minutes.
Spoon into prepared jars, leaving 1/2” headspace. Stir to remove air pockets. Wipe rims, place on seals and rings on finger tight. Place in water bath canner and process 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.
I tasted the salsa while it was warm and it’s delicious so I know in a few weeks it’ll be even better!
Homemade Salsa to Can
9 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2-1/2 cups chopped green bell peppers – I just used a few of our garden peppers since we didn’t quite have enough
2-1/2 cups chopped white onion
4 jalapeños, chopped – I used what we had left over from the garden
8 large cloves garlic, chopped – we used 3 large cloves since our garlic is so large
2 tbsp pickling salt
1 cup pickling vinegar
3/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 – 156ml/5.5oz can tomato paste
Combine everything together. Cook 30 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Spoon into prepared jars, leaving 1/2” headspace. Stir to remove air pockets. Wipe rims, place on seals and rings on finger tight. Place in water bath canner and process 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.
We got 5 – 500ml/pint jars.
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours