A STEEMY SALSA PARTY

When Hive account@papa-pepper has a "salsa party," it's not so people can dance.

Along with the rest of our garden harvest preservation, salsa is a canning job that is always on the list. As you might have suspected, I'll go through a decent amount of salsa over the course of a year, and salsa making is one of those tasks that I really enjoy. Last night, it was time to crank out another six quarts quick.

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU JALAPENOS, MAKE SALSA

Yesterday a neighbor offered up some free jalapenos at a gathering we attended. Before they all disappeared, I had Hive account@mama-pepper snag some up to use later on. I've got a lot of great peppers still on the way, but the tomatoes are cranking it out so hard right now that I figured it'd be a great opportunity to get some additional salsa made up.

After a late night tomato harvest after dark, we had the supplies ready to go. Some of the tomatoes were under-ripe, but they'll ripen on the counter for us. The rest went into the batch of salsa along with some lemon juice, onion, salt, and the jalapenos.

A lot of times super big batches are really worth the effort, but I'll turn out a smaller batch whenever it is convenient too. Smaller batches can be easier to fit into the day, and between tasks I can still work on other things. Every jar of salsa I make now is one more that we can save for the winter!

This batch was six quarts, which was a fine enough batch for me. with what a quart of salsa costs on the street, I'd rather make up my own whenever possible. This salsa was also blended and then cooked, because I like a salsa that is "thin" enough to run out of a bottle. After all, "salsa" means "sauce" anyway.

When they are fresh out of the hot water bath, you can actually see the steem rising from the lids of the jars. There's nothing like some steemy salsa!