Why I Put Up My Own Salsa

This week I took my kids to the you pick place and bought 2 five gallon buckets of tomatoes, and a bucket of hot and bell peppers. We bought a few onions, but most were spoiled, so we didn't buy many.

I went to the local grocery to supply the rest of the onions and the fresh cilantro.

And I have been chopping, slicing, dicing, peeling and processing ever since.

tomatoes I have left after canning 12 quarts of salsa.

So, after standing on my feet for three days, chopping and canning, I was beginning to wonder....

Quarts of salsa

Why am I doing all this?

Here are my answers.

1. I have control over the ingredients.
2. I can use local ingredients in season.
3. My salsa requires less packaging than store bought.
4. I have less waste than stores would, because I dry the tomato skins.
5. Dried tomato skins equal free tomato paste, so there is even less packaging/shipping waste.
6. I don't have to worry about the BPA found in store bought packages.
7. My packaging (canning jars) are mostly re-usable. 
8. There is less transportation and therefore less gas is used to gather and process them. I did drive an hour to the you pick place, but in a regular processing situation for the stores, the farmer would have had to drive the produce to the processing plant, the processing plant would have to deal with it, then it would be taken to a regional store, then a local store and then I would have to drive to get it.
9. I am sure there are no fake ingredients in my salsa.

And the last on the list, but probably the most important reason:

    10. It tastes better!!