Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Salsa 2008

This is what we've been doing the last two Saturdays...Salsa, baby! Saturday before last we canned 36 pints and last Saturday we canned 40 pints! We did something new this year and added black beans and white corn to some of it. We really like it!


Here's one of the pots of salsa. Total time from peeling tomatoes to putting them in the canner was about 3 hours.

Here's my trusty canner. We've had this for at least 14 or 15 years. My Mom and Dad bought it for us for Christmas one year. We've canned just about every summer we've been married (17 years). During the time we lived in Georgia we didn't can as much. We didn't have a good spot for a garden. Neal tried really hard though!


Here's some of our jars. These weren't actually canned yet. We went ahead and put all the salsa in jars with regular lids on them until it was their turn for the boiling water!

This year we also canned 14 qts of green beans. We had so many leftover from last year, that we didn't feel the need to can 70 qts like we usually do. We did eat a lot of steamed green beans though! Yummy!

3 comments:

MarshaMarshaMarsha said...

Okay, because I am a canning dimwit, what exactly is the benefit of a canner? Is it better and easier than the large pot of boiling water method? Just a wondering. I suppose I could google that question... but I prefer to hear from someone with personal experience!

Oh and the salsa makes my mouth water! I have yet to find a decent store bought black bean and corn salsa.

VaQueenBee said...

Marsha,

There is less chance of spoilage if you use a pressure canner. If it's a highly acidic food that you're canning, you can use a hot water bath. All the information I've read though says it is still safer to pressure can. You would never want to can something like green beans in a hot water bath. If you did it would take many hours to ensure the proper temperature was reached. It's just a safer way to go! It's fast too. The longest part of the canning is the cool down period.

Anonymous said...

that looks so yummy - the people that made that should quit their day jobs and make salsa for money

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."