Homemade Cherry Salsa Recipe for Canning (2024)

A good homemade cherry salsa recipe is worth its weight in gold. Enjoy this summer salsa fresh or consider canning cherry salsa to preserve it for later consumption.

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Homemade Cherry Salsa

Let me start by saying these two words, cherry salsa. Delicious, savory, sweet and spicy, homemade cherry salsa.

Let me be honest, when a friend suggested that I put up cherry salsa I may have called her crazy. Fruit salsa isn’t really my thing, but I accepted the challenge and promptly went to creating.

What did I discover? That homemade cherry salsa is absolutely amazing. It is in a class of its own and absolutely delicious. The sweet flavor of the Bing cherries mixed with cilantro, jalapeno peppers, red onions, lime juice and red wine vinegar knock this recipe out of the park.

Enjoy this recipe for homemade cherry salsa with tortilla chips, pork dishes, and as a side with chicken fajitas.

Living in Washington state allows us to enjoy cherries between the months of June through August. And luckily for us the NW Cherry Growers of WA state grow and provide the country the best tasting stone fruit around.

Additional Preserving Recipes

Because the growing season and availability is short it is best to preserve as much of this summertime fruit as possible. This allows you to enjoy the harvest throughout the year.

• Cherry chipotle BBQ sauce
• Chunky cherry jam
• Cherry Juice Concentrate
• Dehydrated cherries for baking
• Fruit leather
• Bourbon cherries
• Pie filling
• Cherry simple syrup

In addition to putting-up this homemade cherry salsa recipe consider preserving candied jalapenos, as well. A little spice with a little sweet partners well with brats, burgers, salad, in meatloaf, with pork and many tacos of all kinds.

The Sustainable Canning Course

Are you searching for canning classes near you? Look no further!The Sustainable Canning Courseis a self-paced series of online classes designed to help you on the road to achieving food ownership.

The Sustainable Canning Courseis an extension of my book,The Farm Girl’s Guideto Preserving theHarvest. I wrote this bookto help guide those who seek to own their food source the opportunity to do so. It is a comprehensive, easy to understand book covering all methods of home food preservation, canning, drying, fermenting, curing, freezing, and storing fresh foods.

• Understand why pressure canning is necessary to preserve foods.
• Confidently alter or create recipes to be canned.
• Preserve many tomato products utilizing scientific information with traditional tools.
• How modern canning tools, such as the steam canner and steam juicer, revolutionized preserving methods.
• Understanding how to decipher information shared by the National Center of Home Food Preservation.
• Discover how easy it is to can meat, fish, soups, and stews.

These topics and many more are available withinThe Sustainable Canning Course. Reserve your spot now, and begin gleaning the necessary information needed to preserve foods as a modern sustainable homesteader does.

Canning Cherry Salsa

This recipe is one which I created. This is not a tested recipe from the NCHFP’s website, however, it closely mimics the mango salsa from this government testing facility.

Test the acidity level of any home canned item using a digital pH reader. In addition to using a steam or hot water bath canner to process cherry salsa, a pressure canner may also be used.

Ingredients

Homemade cherry salsa is perfect when consumed fresh or preserved.

• 4 pounds Bing Cherries, roughly 12 cups washed, stemmed, pitted
• 1 bunch Cilantro, washed and coarsely chopped
• 3 Jalapeno Peppers, washed, seeds and stems removed OR 1-teaspoon crushed red peppers
• 1 1/2 cups Red Onion, coarsely diced
• 4 teaspoons Garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons Sea Salt, Kosher Salt or Pickling Salt
• 1/4 cup bottle Lime Juice
• 2 1/2 cups Red Wine Vinegar (5% acidity or higher)

Equipment

Before starting make sure to have a good cherry pitter on hand. The Progressive cherry pitter is, by far, the best pitting tool on the market. This pitter removes the pit without damaging the fruit.

• cherry pitter
• steam canner or hot waterbath canner
• non-reactive heavy bottom pot, copper jam pot, stainless steel, or enamel dutch oven
• air bubble remover
• jar funnel
• mini slow cooker for warming lids
• 6 pint size mason jars

Canning Cherry Salsa – Instructions

1. First, prepare jars and lids for canning.
2. Next, pit cherries.
3. Coarsely chop pitted cherries, cilantro, red onions, jalapenos, and garlic.
4. Place all ingredients into a copper jam pot, stainless steel pot or enamel dutch oven. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring often. Reduce to simmering, and simmer for an additional 5 minutes, stirring often.
5. Ladle cherry salsa into warmed pint mason jars leaving a 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, add additional salsa if needed.
6. Wipe the rim of jars with a clean dish towel, add warmed lids and rings to finger tight.
7. Process pints in awater bath or steam canner for 15 minutes (for the altitude of 0 – 1000 feet), add additional time based on your altitude (see chart below).

Altitude and Processing Times

Note

In addition to canning homemade cherry salsa in a hot water bath or steam canner, it can also be canned in a pressure canner. The processing time can be found below.

My Book

The Farm Girl’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest is a comprehensive book covering multiple methods for preserving foods in the comfort of your home. Learn how to safely can, dry, ferment, cure, freeze, and store foods fresh as a sustainable homesteader would. The tips, tricks, and recipes within this book will provide you the confidence and knowledge needed to own your food source.

Printable Recipe Card

To make things easier, enjoy this printable recipe card for your convenience!

Enjoy this recipe fresh throughout the summer or preserve it for the winter months.