Salsa

Every year since Scott and I have been married I have made salsa. Last year was the first year we canned it and we have thoroughly enjoyed my "fresh" salsa throughout the off season. This year we decided to purchase our tomatoes for the salsa through Bountiful Basket. They provide fresh produce at an excellent rate. About the time we decided to make salsa they offered a 20lbs pack of tomatoes and a separate Mexican pack. The Mexican pack was full of onions, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, cilantro, green onions, etc. All I had to go to the store and purchase were green peppers. Scott like that added in. Scott was out of town getting Ashlynn from SLC when it came time to go pick up this massive amount of produce. In addition to the tomatoes and the Mexican pack was the normal "basket." Needless to say I had to make 2 trips.
We left the tomatoes downstairs in our guest bedroom because it usually stays nice and cool in there, plus it is rather dark with the door closed. We hoped the tomatoes would stay nice until it was time to make the salsa.
We didn't get around to making the Salsa until Saturday 25 August. We chopped and chopped and chopped some more. For about an hour we chopped. 50 tomatoes make 20lbs. That is a lot of tomatoes. I was able to use the food processor for the different types of onions, the bell peppers, the garlic, and the peppers thankfully. To help get rid of some of the excessive juice of the tomato, we put the chopped tomatoes in a strainer, sprinkled some salt over them, and then let the salt dry out the juice, sort of like putting salt on a slug. With 20 pounds of tomatoes though we had to get creative in where to do this. We finally ended up using our big canning pot that holds between 6-8 gallons.

We stirred everything together, mixing almost up to my elbows. then tasted and something just was not right. We realized it did not have enough cilantro and we had used all that we had! Scott was getting ready to head out to the store when I texted a neighbor and low and behold, they had not one, but three bunches! She sent her daughter down with it and I gave her $2 in return and our salsa was almost complete. Even after the cilantro addition, it was still lacking something. It dawned on me that I usually use some form of citrus and the three little limes Scott had juiced into it just had not done enough. Out came the huge bottle of lemon juice from Sam's and I gave it a couple of good squirts into the pot. A little more mixing and it tasted just right. Unfortunately it was getting late and it was time for me to go lay down before going to work. Scott used about 5 sheets of Saran wrap before taking it downstairs to the garage refrigerator to set for the night. The next day Scott cooked it up until is simmered for just a bit then canned it. We ended up with 19 quart jars full of delicious, homemade salsa.