Delicious Fresh Garden Salsa: How to Water Bath Can
Planted too many tomatoes again? Me too! Thankfully, preserving your harvest doesn’t have to be difficult. This beginner water bath canning recipe will give you delicious fresh garden salsa to enjoy in the middle of winter.
As a child, I remember walking to the basement and selecting a jar from rows of goods on dusty metal shelving in a dark basement.
While it has more creepy vibes than homey ones, canning was a small part of our up bringing.
My mom would can jam and pickles for us to eat throughout the year. Although we never helped her (aside from pilfering jam), cracking that seal off a dusty jar to eat fresh strawberry jam was a delightful part of my childhood memories.
As an adult, I now know the hard (and rewarding) work that goes into growing your own food and preserving it.
The first thing I learned to can was salsa. My then boyfriend and I loved this fresh salsa recipe and I thought, “Why not learn how to can it so we could eat garden food in January and save some money?”
By the end of that summer we had our own shelves filled with jars of salsa and jam to grow dusty in a dark basement.
Hearing the satisfying pop of opening a jar of food you’ve grown and preserved yourself
Man, it is so satisfying to crack each one of those jars and get the fresh burst of garden flavour store-bought food doesn’t even compare to.
Learning the not-as-hard-as-you-think skill of canning will help you to grow and preserve a years worth of food for your family. Just as it has ours!
Water bath canning is the perfect place to start!
What Kind of Tomatoes
Table of Contents
For salsa you generally want to have a firm tomato like a Roma or another paste tomato. Something with less seeds and juice. That being said, any tomato is the perfect tomato to use!
You can certainly use a juicier tomato, but if you don’t like having more seeds or juicy flesh in your salsa, simply cut your tomato in half and scoop out the insides. Then slice and use.
Don’t be so quick to toss the seeds though! You can easily use this method to save your seeds for next years harvest.
What to Do When Your Harvests Aren’t Synced
When growing food to feed our families, we are at the mercy and schedule Mother Nature. While peppers are ripening, the garlic, onions and tomatoes still aren’t ready.
It’s like an avocado… you get a few ripe tomatoes but not enough to can, and then all of a sudden you have boxes and boxes of ripe tomatoes and not enough time to deal with them all!
To keep your harvest at peek freshness while you wait for everything else to be ready, follow the below methods:
- Peppers: wash, rough chopped + freeze in measured batches. Simply thaw and use when ready.
- Garlic: start the drying process and grab what you need.
- Onions: start the drying process and grab what you need when ready.
- Tomatoes: rough chopped and freeze in portions
- Cilantro: ok, you’re hooped. Cilantro you can’t really save so you’ll have to time your harvest via your planting schedule.
Salsa was my first foray into canning. It wasn’t for another decade that I found out salsa is considered an intermediate canning recipe.
Canning isn’t all that difficult, especially water-bath canning. It’s fun, rewarding as all hell, and inspires a whole new level of self-sufficiency.
Enjoy making and if this is your first canning recipe, YEEHAW!!
Fresh Garden Salsa
Equipment
- Water bath canner
- Jar tongs
- 3-5 pint mason jars + lids
- Jar funnel
Ingredients
- 7 cups tomatoes
- 2 cups coarse chopped onions
- 1 cup coarse chopped red pepper
- 5 jalapeños
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 can tomato paste 156 ml
- 3/4 cup white vinegar
- 1 cup chopped cilantro lightly packed
- 1/4 tsp cumin
Instructions
- Please note that you should follow your canners instructions and reference The Step-by-Step Guide to Water Bath Canning, when following this recipeas it is not exhaustive.
- Place 5 clean 500 ml mason jars on a rack in a boiling water canner; cover jars with water and heat to a simmer (180°F/82°C). Heat lids and rings in hot water, not boiling. Keep jars and sealing lids and rings hot until ready to use.
- Blanch, peel, seed and coarsely chop tomatoes *OPTIONAL.
- Measure 7 cups (1750 ml). Wearing rubber gloves remove seeds and finely chop jalapeño.
- Combine tomatoes, onions, green pepper, jalapeño, pepper, garlic, tomato paste, vinegar, cilantro and cumin in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil; boil gently, stirring occasionally, until salsa reaches desired consistency, about 30 minutes.
- Ladle salsa into a hot jar to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of top rim (headspace). Using non-metallic utensil, remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if required, by adding or removing salsa. Wipe jar rim removing any food residue. Centre lid on clean jar rim. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight. Return filled jar to rack in canner. Repeat for remaining salsa.
- If a jar is not completely full, do not can it. Place it in the fridge to eat fresh, or make more salsa.
- When canner is filled, ensure that all jars are covered by at least one inch (2.5 cm) of water. Cover canner and bring water to full rolling boil before starting to count processing time. At altitudes up to 1000 ft (305 m), process –boil filled jars – 20 minutes.
- When processing time is complete, remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes,then remove jars without tilting and place them upright on a protected worksurface (towel on stove top, cooling rack, etc.). Ensure the surface is notcold (ie. Stone countertop). Cool upright, undisturbed 24 hours; DO NOTRETIGHTEN screw bands.
- After cooling check jar seals. The lids should curve downward and do notmove when pressed. Remove rings wipe and dry bands and jars. Store ringsseparately or replace loosely on jars, as desired. Label and store jars in acool, dark place. For best quality, use home canned foods within one year.
PIN FOR LATER
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