I freeze my peppers and tomatoes from the garden until I have the time and amount I need to make salsa. I freeze my tomatoes whole, with the skin on. When I make salsa I pour the bag into the sink filled with hot water and the skin slips off easily. My recipe uses 24 med. tomatoes so I put 12 in a gallon bag, when I make salsa I know that two bags of tomatoes makes one recipe. Works great for me.

alicia, I know several people who freeze salsa. It makes the tomatoes a little "watery", especially if it's fresh salsa. The cooked salsa, like that I make for canning, seems to stand up to the freezing a little bit better. Annie

Thanks for the tip. Does the hot water bath canning cook the fruit and vegetables? My salsa don't have any cooked ingredients. The recipes are simple -- dice and combine all ingredients. Then let mixture sit for a while to enhance flavors. I have substitued canned chili peppers for fresh and played around with different fruit combinations. The salsa seem to work with seafood or poultry. Here are some recipes: Seafood Tacos with Fruit Salsa For the seafood tacos: 2 T lemon juice, 1 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp ground allspice, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 - 2 tsp grated lemon peel, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1 lb or any firm fish filet (halibut, snapper, basa or whatever you like), corn or flour tortillas, 3 cups washed and torn romaine (or whatever greens you like), 1 small red onion thinly sliced Prepare fruit salsa and set aside (recipe follows) Combine lemon juice, chili powder, allspice, garlic, lemon peel and cloves in small bowl. Rub fish with spice mixture. (fish may be cut in pieces first, if you like) Broil, grill or bake fish. Heat tortillas until hot and pliable. Top each tortilla with some lettuce, red onion, a piece of fish and fruit salsa Supposed to make six servings, but I don't think a pound of fish goes that far. Fruit salsa: 1 small ripe papaya, peeled, seeded, diced, 1 firm small banana, diced, 2 green onions minced, 3 T chopped fresh cilantro, 3 T lime juice, 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded & minced Pineapple Salsa 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple, 1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper, 1 green onion thinly sliced, 2 T lime juice, 1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced, 1 T chopped fresh cilantro or fresh basil Mango Salsa: 2 medium ripe mangoes peeled and chopped (also good with papaya), 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced, 1 ripe tomato, chopped, juice of 1 lime, pinch of salt, 1/2 - 1 small fresh chili pepper minced or Tabasco to taste, 1 T chopped fresh cilantro Tomato Orange Salsa: 3 ripe tomatoes diced, 4 scallions chopped, 1/2 - 1 fresh green chili seeded and minced or 1/3 tsp cayenne, 2 tsp freshly grated orange peel, 1 orange sectioned and seeded, each section cut in half, 2 T fresh lemon juice, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, salt to taste

" How does one know if bwb canning is okay.." The first clue if something can be canned or not is if canning/processing instructions are provided in the recipe. In this case they are not and the recipe makes it clear it is for fresh eating or fridge storage only. Freezing is always an option. The second clue is the amount the recipe makes. This is a small batch recipe, a limited amount. Canning recipes are normally for very large batches of food. The third, and most important clue is the source of the recipe. Safe canning recipes are only found in NCHFP/USDA approved books and sources. The first rule one learns in safe home food preservation is that "cooking is art, canning is based on science so you cannot safely can your own personal made-up cooking recipes. Then once you have some training, a working knowledge of the current guidelines, and experience you can look deeper into recipes to see IF they can be adjusted to meet safe canning requirements. In this recipe you are using already canned/processed foods. The standard canning guidelines strongly discourage doing that for several reasons. It uses large amounts of fresh herbs. Safe canning recipes will usually call for only very limited amounts of fresh herbs if any and recommend using dried herbs instead to reduce the effect on pH. It also contains too little added acid for all the low-acid ingredients it contains to safely allow it to be sealed in a vacuum. If it were to be tested its pH would very likely be well above the required 4.6 minimum required. So I'm sorry but this recipe cannot be safely BWB canned. It very likely cannot even be pressure canned safely because its density is unknown and the processing time needed is unknown. Canning salsa is one of the most risky type of canning there is simply because it contains so many low-acid ingredients, the pH is so close to the line, and because it is eaten fresh from the jar with no further cooking to destroy any toxins. Burning Issues: Trying to Can Your Own Salsa Dave