Peach Salsa

My first attempt at this was six summers ago, with Hye Country Heather and her our dear mother, Oma.  If I haven't already shared with you, I adopted Oma many years back.  She's mine for the keeping and I have already told Heather that if I ever have to fight her for Oma, I'll do it....and I am meaner than Heather....she knows it.  But, for now, there is peace....we will share Oma.  But, in the summer of 2004, Heather and I met at her mother's for a weekend of canning and kolache making.  I jokingly called it our own 'Jamboree'.  We made kolaches, peach preserves, peach chutney, tomato preserves, grape jelly (we both got chiggers from that little adventure) and the bless-ed (you must say it like that....two words, people) PEACH SALSA! 

It has been many years, obviously, since we made it (for those of you who are bad at math, that's 6).  I was blessed this year by a friend to go pick all the peaches I wanted - immediately I heard the voice in my head whisper softly....Peach Salsa.  However, I became a little over-whelmed with the 75+ pounds I picked, and ended up freezing all of those all doused in sugar.  But, still I heard the voice chiming in when I laid my eyes upon our loaded tomato plants.  You see, when we planted our garden this spring, I dreamed at night of all the tomatoes I would have.  I would can them whole, diced, Rotel style and even make spaghetti sauce.  Oh, how I dreamed.  Pshaw!  I haven't picked a ripe one yet.  They set tons, but it got so hot they never turned.  Then, in the still of the night just 2 weeks back, some lowly scoundrel came and plucked off every last one of my green tomatoes.  To date, I still cannot explain what happened to them.  Was it the great Tomato Horn Worm (whom I have come to love feeding to my chickens) or was it Little Peter Cottontail?  I may never know, but since then, I have been babysitting my tomato plants...checking them morning, noon and night.  All this trauma aside, there was still a nagging for me to make the Peach Salsa.  So, what does any good prairiegirl do?  She goes into her local, small town grocery store and squeals with excitement when both peaches and tomatoes are on sale, loads up and heads back home to start a cookin' (only to find out that she forgot after 6 years that she needed apples, too).  Lucky for her, her darling husband calls and asks if she needs anything before he heads home that evening.  He truly is my knight in shining armor! 

Before I get on with sharing the recipe, I thought I would share a tutorial video on how to slip the skins off of tomatoes.  If you don't heed the advice of this video, I am done with you.  There is nothing left to say....we will sever this relationship and part ways.  Okay, maybe a little dramatic, but seriously, you hard-headed folks that attempt to just peel them with your purty little paring knife will come around after 2 or 3 tomatoes.  Ask me how I know.  On a side note, I have heard that you can do this with the peaches, too.  I am too hard-headed for that nonsense, plus the peaches I got at the store were more like softball texture, so I could actually peel them with my handy-dandy Pampered Chef vegetable peeler (did you like that little plug there?). 

So, watch this short clip on peeling tomatoes, then proceed to recipe.....

PEACH SALSA

15 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
5 fresh peaches (preferably ripe and sweet), peeled, pitted and chopped
5 red apples, peeled, cored and diced
4 medium onions, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
1 Tbs. salt
1 cup pickling spice (not to be confused with pickling salt), wrapped in cheesecloth

Combine all in a large stock pot.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer for ~ 2 hours or until thickened.  Transfer to sterile jars.

**My note on this recipe was this:  'Almost botched the frist time when Heather came home with pickling SALT instead of pickling SPICE! 

This is super yummy over cream cheese!  Enjoy!

Prairie Kerri

P.S.  For a little garden education I thought I would share a picture of the Great Tomato Horn Worm and the moth it turns into.  They both are in my sites and I will kill them all....