I have a (long- sorry!) question about canning Salsa Verde (tomatillo salsa). I have been using the Tomato Salsa recipe I got from the local U of I ag extension office for over 20 years, putting up over 100 jars of mild and hot versions per year. In the past few years, my wife and I have grown tomatillos for the sole purpose of making our own version of the Salsa Verde that we love from our local Mexican restaurants . The base ingredients to our recipe are not that different than what we use in the "safe canning' tomato salsa recipe, but we have always put the finished product into the freezer. One reason is because we have also used the few "safe" Salsa Verde recipes we have found from various canning sites. These all call for a larger amount of acidification than standard salsa- Ball companies site (Homecanning.com) asks for 1/2 cup of bottled lemon juice and 4 tablespoons of lime juice for just 4 half-pints of canned tomatillo salsa! I made this one once, and the end result was more like tomatillo pickle relish, without the sweetness. We couldn't find anyone who like the Ball version, and we never made it again.

My real questions is this- if the average ph of a tomattillo is around 3.5, and a tomato is around 4.5(from research I have done on the Internet, using only government studies and the like), why can't we use the Tomato Salsa recipe and substitute our tomatillos for the tomatoes? As much as we enjoy eating the frozen stuff, we are going to need a bigger freezer if we can't find a safe recipe for water bath canning our green salsa ( I plan on doubling the amount of tomatillo plants I grow this year)!

Thanks you for your time,

Todd Wilson