Canning Adventures--Zesty Salsa

Our garden has been overflowing with produce. As Patrick's aunt so eloquently put it, the tomatoes are "making babies like rabbits."  So, what better to do with over forty garden fresh tomatoes and several green peppers than throw them together in a homemade salsa?

I've never made my own salsa before, and the closest I've come to canning was watching Patrick's grandma do it. But that's never stopped me from trying something new before! Together grandma and I boiled and peeled and seeded and chopped and minced and stirred and hot-water-bath-ed until we had seven beautiful pints of salsa canned and ready to be enjoyed. (We also still had more than half of the tomatoes waiting to be used or eaten.)

You can find the recipe we used here, but I'm not in a step-by-step mood right now. I will, however, share some pictures with you. Salsa-making is such a colorful process, I could hardly resist!

Naked tomatoes! (Boil for a minute or so then throw them in cold water--the skins slip right off.)

Pretty green garden bell peppers.

So many colors! I just think it looks so pretty. Patrick's grandma made fun of me for wanting the orange bell pepper just because it would be pretty. *Shrug* What can I say? I was feeling superfluous.

Here it is with the garlic and cilantro added.

Hot water bath. It's cloudy because of the steam.

The finished product.

It's a fun feeling, spending the morning making and canning salsa. Sometimes I feel like a lot of the things I enjoy or am good at are activities of "excess." You know, if someone is truly struggling to survive in any era, then their energy is going to be focused on the necessary things--food, water, clothing, shelter, etc. Piano, crafting, blogging, baking unhealthy treats and other similar things are all great, but they are hardly necessary skills. So when I learn these "homemaker-y" type skills, I get a different sort of satisfaction. I, with my own two hands and Patrick's grandma's help, created something good for my family to eat and preserved it to last into the future. What a cool accomplishment!

So I think I may be onto something with this canning thing. I hope to try some more again in the future.

In any case, I'd rather be experimenting with canning than wrestling with a sewing machine any day. That's one basic skill that will take quite a bit of willpower (and grumbling) for me to master.