How to freeze tomatoes

Freezing tomatoes is so easy. Especially cherry tomatoes.

These are the "Super 100" tomatoes we grew this summer.

Simply rinse, pop in plastic bags or containers and freeze.


Just take out the amount you need for cooking. You can use them in stews and soups, sauces and more.

You can freeze larger tomatoes also whole. Another method for freezing is to blanch the tomatoes in boiling water, remove skins, cut, place in zip lock bags and freeze.
See our recipe for easy tomato sauce.

Staking tomatoes

When staking my tomatoes I used 1x2x8 pieces of lumber and for irrigation 

I attached a 1" pvc pipe to each stake using plastic ties. I drilled a small hole (at an angle) at the bottom of each pipe. I used the pipes for irrigation. It works really well when you don't have the hose irrigation and for quickly watering your plants.

 

This is my niece Michaela looking for tomato hornworms. She and I would go out early in the morning to catch them. Our hard work really paid off. We hardly had any damage at all this summer from hornworms or other pests.

You can usually find them tucked under the leaves. They can do tremendous damage to tomato plants. They look like green caterpillars.

These are "Super Sweet 100" cherry tomatoes". This stake is 8ft in height.

They grew in wonderful clusters. I liked how you could pick handfuls and just toss them in salads and easy to freeze. Just rinse, toss in zip lock bags and freeze.

Yellow boy tomato salad recipe

This summer was the first time I ever grew yellow boy tomatoes. They are delicious. Here's a recipe I came up with for them.

Ingredients:

4-5 large yellow boy tomatoes

2 TBLS of freshly chopped dill

1/8 c dried tomatoes

2 large cloves of fresh crushed garlic

2 large cucumbers sliced

olive oil

salt

pepper

hand full of cherry tomatoes (husky boy heirloom)

Mix the above ingredients together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil.

Drying tomatoes

Tomatoes can be dried in the oven, sun or a dehydrator.  i use the dehydrator. Slice larger size tomatoes about a 1/4 of inch thick. When using cherry tomatoes you can dry them whole or slice in half. 

Place on dehydrator rack and allow to dry until leathery. 




For oven drying, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and lay out tomatoes evenly, turn oven on lowest setting and let dry for 12-14 hours or until leathery. 

Place tomatoes in canning jar and cover with olive oil. Use in soups, salads and stews.

Tomato plants how to propagate

Did you know you can take cuttings from tomato plants, root them in water and grow a new plant?

Here are some of the cuttings I've started. I'm going to attempt growing tomatoes through the winter  my hoop houses. 

Tomato Sauce home made

Tomatoes were EVERYWHERE in my house. On tables, counters, tv's, bookcases, in dresser draws, my purse!

They were taking over. I looked around one day and my house looked like I a TV episode of tomato hoarders. So what's a girl to do? Start making sauce of course!

This recipe is not for the novice or faint of heart. In other words it's for people who can cook by just looking at a picture and throwing something together. 
What you'll need:
A pot
A pot with water already boiling
Tomatoes
Salt to taste
Wash ripe tomatoes, place them in the "pot with water already boiling" for about 2 minutes.  This process makes it easy to remove the skin. Remove them from water and peel.

After peeling the tomatoes you can cut them up. But if your feeling really indolent, just throw them Add the "other" pot, cover with a lid and bring them to a simmer, stirring occasionally. They will produce a lot of their own juice. In the above photo, the juice you see in the tomatoes is a picture perfect example of what I mean. 
So, I threw a bunch of them in the pot, added a little salt and cooked them "down" to a consistency that looked like sauce to me. When they were "done" I poured the sauce in to canning jars and processed them for about 20 minutes. (those are the tomatoes you see in the photo "Summer's Bounty")

If you don't know how to can, don't fret. You can still do what I did. You simply let the tomatoes cool off, place them in freezer bags or containers and freeze.
Later I'll post more technical details of canning tomatoes.