Mexican Farmer's Market and Salsa

I have the best visiting teachers EVER. One of my visiting teachers mentioned she shops at the Mexican Farmer's Market and gets a super deal on bulk vegetables (I am learning to like them) and makes salsa. I was very interested in a cheeper way to feed my family. I asked if I could at least go along with her next time she went to check it out.

I bought 4 boxes of Roma tomatoes and 1 box of bananas. I paid $7 for 23 pounds of tomatoes. Wow. The lady that I went with usually pays double that and it is still a good deal. We got a screaming deal. Probably won't see that good of deal ever again. Or maybe we will. Hopefully.

I got 42 pounds of bananas for $13. Thats pretty good too considering that would have cost me $29 at Kroger. I was happy.

Then I got home and realized I had to process all that produce.

What had I gotten myself into?

The first day was so horrible I promised to never make salsa again. Never buy bulk again for that matter. I had to blanch the tomatoes, peel them, chop them, chop onions that made me cry so hard, cut and chop jalapenos  and then cilantro. It was a lot of work.

Until I discovered what my really cool blender could do. I knew it was really cool. But I didn't know just how cool it was. 

It chopped all my onions, jalapenos, and even tomatoes. 

I had Gavin and Nathan peel all the tomatoes. I just had to bribe Nathan with a trip to the dollar store. That 4 year old boy peeled over 200+ tomatoes. That is one dedicated worker!

And the blender chopped veggies to the pot with a little seasoning, and you get the most amazing salsa ever.

This was the final result of 95 pounds of tomatoes. 2 days of work, and I accomplished exactly what I wanted:

The experience of making salsa, blanching tomatoes, etc.

I added garlic and cilantro to the recipe. Replaced the lemon juice with lime juice.