Cilantro is quite volitile and cannot be dried or canned well, as the smell and flavor are totally lost within a few days. Even fresh store bought, loses a lot of flavor within a few days. When I serve salsa, I always buy a bunch of cilantro to chop up some to be added once its opened. I also add a chopped onion, maybe a pepper or two and a tomato or two, just for a bit more fresh texture from the original home canned product

Sure, I often do that. I'll pick a bunch of tomatoes with great intentions and then life gets in the way. A day or two or even three on the counter is fine. By the way, there is an ongoing debate about "refrigerate or never refrigerate". I personally can tell the difference if I'm eating them fresh, but I've had to refrigerate some (sudden out of town trip and I didn't want to leave them on the counter in a hot kitchen while I was gone). They worked fine in salsa and sauces. No one could tell the difference later when we taste tested the two different batches.

Dennae, I'm the author of the "Annie's Salsa" recipe and I sometimes reheat my salsa and do not seem to have any problem with the liquid separating from my tomatoes. Possibly because I squeeze out some of the "goo" or drain the tomatoes before using them, or maybe it's due to the addition of the tomato paste, but I just don't seem to have that problem. I first made this recipe when I was still a single mother and working full time and didn't always have time to do everything in the evening after work, sometimes the canning process had to stretch over two days. It has always worked for me. If there is a concern for you, however, feel free to prepare everything and mix it up the night before, then give it the 10 minute cook time the next day before canning. I've found that I'm not really saving that much time by cooking the night before anyway, as I have to give it time to cool a little before refrigerating it anyway. It's just as fast to simply combine the prepared ingredients and cook/can the next day. Annie

In a nutshell, the biggiest worry in home canning is low acid vegetables and a few fruits that are low acid. When they are canned, a low or zero oxygen environment is formed inside the jar. Under these circumstances, botulism spores which are normally found in the soil and COULD be in your jars, and are not killed by the temperatures of a boiling water bath or just heating the substance being canned, can start to produce a highly toxic substance called botulinum or something like that (it's not exactly that, but something spelled very similarly). That can KILL you! And there is no off smell, etc. for that. However, it is easily avoided by either adding acid and or sugar to low acid vegetables (such as many cucumber pickle recipes, for example), or by pressure canning, which if done correctly reaches a temperature inside the jar hot enough to kill the botulism spores so they don't start reproducing. Tomatoes are on the border of what is considered and acid fruit/vegetable and acid levels vary with the tomato, so it is tomato recipes that often cause the most discussion and controversy with home canners. As far as "safe" goes, one way to insure safety is to follow recipes developed by folks who have tested the safety of the end product in a regulated food lab, such as the National Center for Home Food Preservation at U. of GA (I think that's where it is), or commercial labs like Ball has. That doesn't mean that an old family recipe isn't safe for sure, but it means there is no way of telling for sure. Many home canning recipes are so similar to commercial ones that you can pretty much tell they are safe. Others fly in the face of safe canning practices with regards to acidity and processing, so you can pretty much tell they are unsafe. Some are on the fence. Also, there is no gauruntee that if you eat something unsafely canned you will get botulism poisoning, it is just a considerable risk. And since the consequence is death, I don't think it is worth the risk if there is any question as to the recipe or methods followed by the home canner. When done properly, home canning is absolutely safe, and the quality is far superior to what you would get in the store. It is no more dangerous that preparing meat. However, you can't mess around and expect it to be OK, just like you can't leave meat sitting out and think that you are not taking a risk.