Recipe: Salsa

In perusing the 100 Days of Real Food Blog, one reality quickly to came to my mind: If I do this, I’m going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy spending time in the kitchen, I make the majority of our dinners from scratch and I love to bake. But, I am not used to making the majority of my food from breakfast cereal to snack items. And maybe that’s a problem. Maybe we are so far removed from where our food comes from that we don’t know what is real food anymore. That is the gist behind the real food movement in a nut shell.

Taking a look at the 10 Day Pledge Rules and taking stock of my pantry, I realized I was going to need some time to prepare for this Pledge. Especially in the snack and condiment departments where just about everything I had was loaded with preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, or artificial colors/flavors/sweeteners. About the same time, I also happened to take my younger two children peach picking at Cherry Hill Orchard – lugging home 20 pounds of peaches and needing something to do with them all. And my CSA share that week included a large number of beautiful tomatoes. Since one of the other basic tenets of real food is eating locally, I was lead to the aha moment: I’m going to make my own salsas….

Peach Salsa

• 4 cups ripe peeled and chopped peaches (6-9 peaches depending on size)
• 2 cups ripe chopped tomatoes
  

  Peach Salsa!

• 1/2 cup chopped onions (I used sweet onions from our CSA share)
• 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
• 4 jalapeno peppers, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• juice and zest of one lime (use organic and give it a good scrub)
• 1/4 cup honey

Prepare two pint jars or four half-pint jars by washing in hot soapy water, rinsing well, then placing in a large pot of water (should cover the tops of the jars by an inch or two). Wash lids and rings, and put them in a small pan of water. Bring the jars to a boil and boil for 10 min. Bring lids and rings to a simmer. Keep the jars and lids in the hot water while you make the salsa.

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil one minute. Remove jars and lids/rings from water. Pour salsa into prepared glass jars, leaving 1/4 inch air

space at top of the jar. Wipe and drippings from the rims with a clean damp cloth. Fingertip seal (tighten lids with your fingers, but not too tight) and process in boiling water for 10 minutes. You may want to put a clean dish towel in the pot around the jars to help stabilize them if you do not have a canner (I don’t). Remove jars from water with tongs – be careful it’s hot! Allow to cool – you should hear the lids ping, that’s the sound of a good seal. If you have excess salsa, just put it in a bowl, covered, in the fridge and use within a week (if it lasts that long).

Tomato Salsa

To make “regular” salsa (so named by my children), replace the peaches with additional tomatoes for a total of 6 cups of tomatoes and omit or decrease the honey to 2 tablespoons. Everything else is the same.

I used a combination of yellow and red tomatoes, green and orange bell peppers, and sweet onions from the CSA share. It came out really pretty (if I do say so myself) and very, very yummy.

Local Harvest Tally: Tomatoes, onions, garlic and bell peppers came from Homefield’s CSA. Peaches came from Cherry Hill Orchards. Jalepenos and cilantro were purchased at Lancaster Central Market, but I forgot to note which stand (I promise to do better next time).  The cumin came from The Herb Shop at Lancaster’s Central Market. The clover honey came from Dutch Gold and was purchased at Central Market. Limes are not local to Lancaster, so I chose organic at SKH in Roherstown, as the next best.