I made some chokecherry syrup and jelly, crabapple jelly, peach jelly, grape jelly, then some jelly from some wild strawberries and wild raspberries I picked in the mountains.They are so yummy! Today I have made salsa and I am canning it right now. :love:I love canning it is so fun! Just had to let everyone know how much fun I am having with this. Now a side note I have never canned or made these items before this week, but I will for sure be making more!
I have been canning pickles all day and tomorrow will be salsa and more tomatoes. The grapes aren't ready yet, but jelly will come soon enough. Glad you are enjoying it!....and wild mountain strawberries sound wonderful!
I canned grape juice yesterday from grapes a lady gave us. I love being able to cut back on our grocery bill. It is especially nice when I don't have to buy anything to do it. Yesterday the grapes were free and I had the sugar, jars and lids here already. Love it!
By the way, if you are having to buy canning jars you might want to check out Goodwill. I buy a lot of mine there. This week I got there when they had put out a box of 18 small mouth quart jars and several pint and half pint jars. They charge $.25 a jar here. I only buy the ones that say Mason since I use the pressure canner a lot. I inherited a lot of jars from my late mother in law, but since we can a lot now I was needing more. I love getting them at yard sales or anywhere I don't have to pay full price. Big Lots had a good buy on lids this year and they were made by one of the big names. I forget if it was Ball or Kerr. They were the ones called Golden Harvest and worked just like the more expensive ones. Can you tell I am a bargain hunter? LOL
I am not a big salsa fan, but my family is. I had never made it until this year. I bought the package of Mrs. Wages Salsa mix at Walmart and it was so easy! All you need it the package of mix, 1/2 cup vinegar and about 18 medium sized tomatoes. It makes about 5 pints and comes in hot or medium. There may be a mild, but I never found it. They also carry it at Tractor Supply, Ingles and lots of other stores. I am sure making the whole thing from scratch is more fun, but we love this kind.
I used the packets fo Mrs. Wages salsa, too. I was going to make homemade, but by the time I bought and prepped all the other veggies, it was cheaper to just buy the packets. Side note...I drained so much juice off of mine (I like it thick and chunky), that it cut the quantity in half.
This is the one Crazymama shared with me and it is wonderful. Also it doesn't take vinegar so it really tastes like salsa. Now it is a bit of of work, but so worth it. http://seasonalontariofood.blogspot.com/2007/09/canning-salsa.html
Thanks for the tips. I like that one on the blog although I am not sure about peeling the tomatos, do you normally do that? Do you use the Roma tomatos? I have heard they are the best for salsa.
I did peel them and at first I thought no way, but you know what the salsa is awesome. Yes I use Roma, they are pastier and meatier. Perfect for Salsa.
Romas are super easy to peel if you toss them in boiling water for a minute. You can take them out and put them in ice water for a quick cool, but I usually just give them a few minutes before handling them. If you use a grapefruit or strawberry spoon to remove the little core, you can just squeeze the tomato right out of it's skin.
