the salsa dance....

For the last 2 nights our family has gone over to the Remy Homestead to can salsa.  At first the Reluctant Farmer and I were going to do this at our house on Monday night because we had an abundance of tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and jalapeno peppers from the garden.  When we mentioned this to Christie she said she really wanted to try her hand at canning, so we packed up all of our stuff and moved over to her house.  This was actually a win-win situation.  They have a bigger kitchen than we do thus easier to move 3 bodies around comfortably and a swimming pool so the kids are not under your feet in the kitchen.  

I have torrid love affair with canning and much like a marriage, it is time consuming and demands most of your attention but in the end it is deeply satisfying.  Canning is sort of like a dance that the Reluctant Farmer and I have perfected as a team.  Each one knows what the other one does and by now there is little explanation needed on either person's part.  We just do what we do and it runs fairly smooth.  Christie fit into our dance easily and it was wonderful having a third person because it went much faster!  

With all of this being said we were able to produce 41 jars of salsa in 2 nights.  That left us with 20 jars each and 1 jar to taste test.  It was good and I think it will be even better this fall/winter when I am craving fresh vegetables from my garden.  

Garden Vegetable Salsa:

7 c. peeled, cored, coarsely chopped tomatoes

2 c. coarsely chopped onions

1 c. chopped green peppers

8 chopped jalapeno peppers

4 cloves finely chopped garlic

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

3/4 c. white vinegar

5.5 oz tomato paste

Mix all of this in a large saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring constantly.  Then reduce heat to low/medium bring to a boil again and stir for 30 minutes while mixture thickens.  Fill jars leaving 1/2 inch head space and process in a water bath canner for 20 minutes.