Working with the WV Extension agent for Logan County, we held a canning workshop at Nighbert United Methodist Church in Logan, where we canned tomato salsa. We had our regular gardeners plus we invited people from the Family Resource Center to join us to get an idea of what we’re doing and possibly join us for the 2025 growing season.

 

Nighbert United Methodist Church has a nice industrial kitchen, just right for a bunch of home canners to meet and can multiple batches. The “rent” was very reasonable- we gave the minister and the receptionist each a jar of salsa.

Our gardeners spent about four hours chopping tomatoes and onions and peppers and cilantro, cooking them, and then putting the hot salsa into sterilized jars before being popped back into a hot water bath to finish sterilizing and sealing the jars. Nothing sounds quite as beautiful as the sound of jar lids popping shortly after coming out of the hot water bath.

 

While the majority of attendees were women, the few men who attended did give the women a run for their money and were quite proud of the salsa they had worked to can. Their was a bit ofv friendly rivalry with the men claiming their salsa was better than the women’s, and the women saying theirs was better despite them using the same recipe.