While many excellent types of salsa are available in supermarkets, you can tailor homemade fresh salsa to suit your own taste buds. By following guidelines in this publication, you can safely process salsa in a water bath canner for later enjoyment.

Water-bath canning is a method of preserving high-acid foods. Fresh foods contain a high percentage of water, which makes them very perishable. High-acid foods can be preserved safely when they reach temperatures provided by a boiling water-bath canner. To kill harmful molds, yeasts and some bacteria, processing using the boiling water-bath method ensures the safety of preserved produce. However, this method does not provide high enough temperatures to destroy botulinum spores in low-acid foods such as vegetables.

Many types of fruit and juices can be used to make jams and jellies. This guide provides recipes for several wild fruits, including buffalo berries, chokecherries, gooseberries, ground cherries, pin cherries, rose hips and sand cherries. You may need to experiment a bit to get an acceptable product because of variations in the growing conditions and varieties of wild fruits.

Many people grow tomatoes in their traditional or container gardens. With a good year, you may want to preserve some tomatoes to enjoy during the winter. The recommendations in this publication take into account numerous tomato varieties, including those described as meaty, solid, firm and with few seeds, and the recommendations also allow for various growing conditions. If you do not want to follow these instructions, freezing is a safe alternative

Peaches are a delicious fruit that are “in season,” at their best quality and, often, best price in late summer. This publication provides step-by-step instructions for preserving them.