Down On The Farm Salsa, Baby!

Just imagine yourself sitting down to a bag of white corn tortilla chips and a bowl of our homemade salsa. That, my friends, is heaven on earth. Opening a jar of our homemade salsa is just like opening up a jar of sunshine, or, if its the middle of winter, a jar of summertime. The smell of fresh tomatoes, garlic, onion, mmmmmmmmm. Delicious. I am so excited, I have have had a request to post my salsa recipe and I'm happy to do so. So here it is, Down On The Farm Salsa!!!!!!!!!!!!

You start with six quarts of fresh tomatoes. Homegrown and perfectly ripe works best. We like our salsa fairly smooooooooth, so I use a Pampered Chef Food Chopper to chop the tomatoes, plus it makes it a lot easier to measure six quarts of tomatoes. We add 4 cups of homegrown onion and 2 cups of homegrown green pepper. Again, we like ours chopped pretty fine, but you can do whatever trips your trigger. We add 1/4 cup chopped garlic and 2 or 3 chopped jalapenos. If you don't like jalapenos, by all means you can leave them out, but, I think it just gives it a little "kick" without being too overpowering. Pour all this into a stock pot or other large pan then add 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar and 2 Tablespoons salt.

Stirring continually, bring this mixture up to a slow simmer, then let it simmer for 20 minutes. Again, you will need to stir continually as tomatoes are notorious for scorching. After simmering, pour the mixture into clean, hot jars. We use pint jars, and this recipe makes 9 or 10 pints, depending on how many tomatoes, onion and green pepper you put in. After putting the salsa into jars, put your lids and rings on, and process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. We have probably made 50 pints of salsa this summer alone, and have never had a problem with jars not sealing.

You can, of course, adjust this recipe to suit your taste. One batch we added homegrown corn kernels. Another batch I used brown sugar instead of white sugar. Sometimes we add more or less japalenos.

Now I will warn you of something. This salsa doesn't last long around our house. Cole and Alex can eat a bag of tortilla chips and a jar of salsa BEFORE SUPPER!! So, while 50 pints of salsa may sound like a lot to you . . . we will be making more. Hope you enjoy your Down On The Farm Salsa!!!

DOWN ON THE FARM SALSA

6 qt. chopped tomatoes

4 c. chopped onions

2 c. chopped green peppers

2 or 3 chopped jalapenos

1/4 c chopped garlic

1/4 c sugar

1/4 c corn starch

1/2 c apple cider vinegar

2 Tbls. Salt

Bring to a slow simmer, and simmer 20 minutes. Then pour into clean hot pint jars. Put on lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. Allow jars to cool and seal then BRING ON THE TORTILLA CHIPS!!!