Elsie's Salsa

The blossom-end rot delayed my salsa making plans this year. I have been slowly gathering ripe tomatoes, resisting my desires to eat them and putting them in a gallon bucket, anxiously awaiting a full gallon so I could make salsa.

Our 2009 garden plan was basically this: make "grandma's salsa." The grandma in this case was Ryan's grandma, Elsie. Ryan has great memories from his childhood of his grandma canning her salsa. The taste brings back all of those memories and it's something that my non-food loving husband, LOVES. I tried making it last year, scared to death that it wouldn't taste the same, but Ryan and his sister both agree that it tastes just like they remember.

So, aside from the gallon of tomatoes, the salsa also includes green peppers (obviously not from my garden), jalapenos, onions (also not from my garden...can you tell I'm bitter?) and Serrano peppers (or, a hot chile pepper).

Mixed all together and cooking on the stove:



After cooking and hot water bath canning..... we have 10 freshly canned salsa jars (and one larger jar with the leftover). I am not very good at planning how many jars I need, but I made a note for next time, I need 12 pint jars!



Hopefully, this is just the beginning of our yummy salsa making 2010. If you want the full recipe, please let me know.

Time to Think about Preservation

My tomato plants are looking GREAT. You know what that means?!?!?! More SALSA! Last year I only canned salsa and peppers (both jalapenos and Tabasco peppers). This year, I hope to stock up on more salsa and other veggies if possible.

In my quest to improve my education (and the fact I have a lot of free time on my hands), I signed up for two food preservation classes through the University of Illinois Extension!

Here are the descriptions:

June 17th–Canning: This program will offer information on the two safe ways to can. We will demonstrate how to do boiling water bath canning and pressure canning. The equipment for both types of canning will be shown. There will be a discussion on which method should be used for different foods.

June 24th–Freezing and Salsa making: Freezing is one of the easiest methods of preserving food. This program will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of freezing. The importance of pretreatments for some foods will be discussed and blanching will be demonstrated. Some important guidelines for preparing safe home canned salsas will be provided

They also offered a jam/jelly and food drying session, but I'll stick to these two for now. I hope I can learn a little more about canning - especially with tomatoes. I also hope to pick up other ideas for my various veggies in the garden!

You may want to check your local extension offices to see if they are offering courses, as well. I wish I had someone close to take the course with me, but maybe it will be an opportunity for me to make new (85-year-old) friends.