I was gifted three five gallon buckets full of fresh tomatoes.  I know!!! That is AWESOME!!!  They had to all be done up pretty quickly though because they were very ripe.

The first thing is to get the canner going with the jars in it to sterilize them while working up the tomatoes.

In all the years I’ve canned, I didn’t know this trick until now: cut an X into the bottom of the tomato after coring it and when you pull it out of the boiling water (used to skin it), the skin will just peel right off! Thank you to my mother in law for teaching me this over the weekend!

Toss them in a pot of boiling water for just one minute to get the skins off.

This is how you know they’ve been in long enough: the skin gets wrinkly!

A spaghetti spoon is great for grabbing the smaller tomatoes out of the boiling water. Tongues do not work because they tend to squish very ripe tomatoes and make a mess .

If you don’t drain the tomatoes after skinning and chopping them, your salsa will be very thin and watery. A great way to drain them is just to put them in a colander set in a bowl. Chickens love that fresh tomato juice that drips off the bottom. People can drink it, too! Don’t waste it!

Salsa cooking away in the pan….This is one of the prettiest sights you’ll ever see!

I totally cheated this year. I used a mix by Mrs. Wages. It has the onions and jalapenos and peppers and garlic along with the spices all dehydrated and in a packet. It is so tasty!

30 jars ready for the cold winter months…yum!!!

Yum yum yummity YUMMMMMMM!!!!!