Fruits and vegetables are in season.....

[coyote101]

..... and in the past couple of days my wife and I have canned five quarts of tomatoes, seventeen pints of salsa and four quarts of peaches.

One of the salsa recipes cooking. Tomatoes, onion, jalapeno peppers, green chili peppers, green bell pepper, cilantro, garlic, salt, and lime juice:
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Into the canner for the hot water bath:
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Cooling in the jars:
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This stuff is really good.

Pat

[FinsnFur]

Good lord it LOOKS good!
Whats the trick to having a thicker base? All salsa from the store has a sort of thick base to it. Not real thick but...I guess I ask because I have tried other peoples homemade salsa and the juice runs all over the floor when ya scoop a chip, like red water. 
Tostitos or Pace dont do that?

[coyote101]

Good lord it LOOKS good!
Whats the trick to having a thicker base? All salsa from the store has a sort of thick base to it. Not real thick but...I guess I ask because I have tried other peoples homemade salsa and the juice runs all over the floor when ya scoop a chip, like red water. 
Tostitos or Pace dont do that?

I'm new at this so I can't say for sure, but I think draining a lot of the tomato juice before cooking would help, as would cooking it longer, or maybe adding tomato paste. 

Pat

[pitw]

Wow do I like threads like this.  I've never tried it with Jalapeno's as we never have any of them but I bet it kicks taste buds around some. 
Would a mite of corn starch not use up the liquid?

[coyote101]

Wow do I like threads like this.  I've never tried it with Jalapeno's as we never have any of them but I bet it kicks taste buds around some. 
Would a mite of corn starch not use up the liquid?

I think tat might work too, Barry. Like thickening gravy or stew.

Pat

[Dale]

a bit of okra will thicken it also...

[pitw]

This Okra stuff keeps coming up and a fellow on another forum even posted pics of what the plant looks like for me.  What does it taste like and what is it good for?

[slagmaker]

This Okra stuff keeps coming up and a fellow on another forum even posted pics of what the plant looks like for me.  What does it taste like and what is it good for?

Well, okra tastes like okra. I cant think of anything even close to the flavor. Some people like it with stewed tomatoes. I prefer it fried with a corn meal batter. I know my grandpa liked pickled okra but I have not tried it that way.

[FinsnFur]

  I've heard of okra, but that is literally it. Winfrey, right?

[Okanagan]

Oh man,  Pat, your salsa looks tasty!  I LOVE salsa and yours looks like the best.

As to okra:  imagine a bland but off-taste cross between avocado peeling and a tough green bean that is past eating stage, and add a fur texture exterior like scaled down velcro.  No wonder they try to coat it and deep fry it and chop it up and cook it forever-- anything to make it into something good, which it is not.     My late mother and father loved okra.  Reminded them of poverty in the south I suspect.     (Flame suit on.  Expect incoming from okra lovers.)

[pitw]

Well thanks for that OK.  Now I can quit looking for seeds.

[Okanagan]

Well thanks for that OK.  Now I can quit looking for seeds.

And I forgot to mention the slime...   

[slagmaker]

Barry, if you do get seed just remember to harvest the okra before they get to big. Otherwise you might as well be chewing on some of Jims scrap wood. And keep in mind that once your okra starts comming on it matures quick and I do mean quick.

[Dale]

I used to let the crop mature on the vine at the end of the season... just as the pods started to split open I'd pull them and lay them to dry completely...  when dry I'd take the seeds and put them up to use over the winter in soups and stews to thicken them, they'd add a mild nutty flavor also...

[Okanagan]

On original topic, I love this time of year.  I have a peach cobbler baking at the moment, to be done before the day warms up though our weather has been cool lately.  Local corn has just started, I'm making thick sliced tomato sandwiches, made a fresh apricot cobbler over the weekend and my wife is trying to OD on fresh cherries.  Huge lapin cherries this year.  Domestic blueberries are in roadside stands and wild huckleberries are ripening in the hills.  Saw a bear on Saturday while prospecting to see if huckleberries are ripe early.  Bear was in a clear-cut across a canyon from us.  Hmmm...  went over where the bear was and found ripe huckleberries.  Saw the bear again at 60 yards but he boogied out of there, agitating a path through the tall fireweed blossoms.

Fruit and vegetable season is a GREAT time of year!

Added PS:  Pat, looking at your salsa again got me going.  I went upstirs and had some chips and storebought salsa while waiting for the cobbler to bake.  Great breakfast!