Mild Canned Salsa

Makes 6 quarts.

1. The tomatoes need to be skinned. You do this by boiling water in a large pot and then putting the tomatoes in the boiling water for 20 to 30 SECONDS. Place them in a bowl of ice water immediately. Then you can peel them.

2. Cut all of the peppers and remove the seeds. If you don’t remove the jalapeno seeds, your salsa will not be mild.

3. In a food processor or chopper, chop bell peppers, onions, jalapenos, garlic and the tomatoes. They can be chopped by hand, but the food processor is easier. Also, I don’t like my salsa really chunky, so the food processor works better for me. If you want a chunkier salsa, you can chop half of the vegetables by hand.

4. Put all ingredients into a large pot. Bring to boil and simmer for 25 minutes. This process boils off some of the liquid from the tomatoes.

5. Place lids and rings into a small pot with water and bring the water to a boil. This will get the lids soft so they will seal better. Leave them in the hot water until you place them on the jars.

6. Also, start your water bath (canner) water on the burner at this time. It takes a while to get the water boiling.

7. Pour the salsa into hot jars (you get the jars hot by putting them in a sink of hot water). You want to leave an inch of air at the top of the jars.

8. Wipe the rim of the jars with a wet cloth to get any drips off and then seal them with the lids, making sure you screw them on tight.

9. Place jars into a water bath and bring the water to a boil. The water in the water bath needs to be at least an inch above the jars. Boil salsa jars for 20 minutes for quart-sized jars or 15 minutes for pint-sized ones.

10. Take the bottles out of the water bath canner and place them on a towel. They will seal as the jars cool. You know they are sealed by pressing down on the lid of the jar. If it doesn’t pop when you push it, then they are sealed.