Processing tomatoes for the freezer (or canning) is really easy. First, start a large pot of water to boil, and gather up all your ripe tomatoes; wash the dirt off them. Fill your sink with cold water. Blanch the tomatoes in the boiling water for about a minute (some tomatoes may take longer, you'll get the hang of it through trial and error). To get mine into the water, I lower them down [carefully] in a small colander:
Scoop the tomatoes out of the water and plunge into the waiting cold water. If your kitchen is like mine, the stove is opposite the sink! I hold the colander in one hand and the pan lid under it with the other hand to catch the drips. Allow them to cool. The water will get warm as time goes by; at some point you may need to drain and re-fill if your tomatoes are not cooling off fast enough to handle.
Now remove the tops (I use a nifty thing I got from pampered chef, however a paring knife will work too) and slide the skin off. If the skin does not slide off, you probably need to blanch it a bit longer. If the skin is still totally stuck, your tomato might not be ripe enough.
I mix all my tomatoes for variety. Once you have a big bowl, you can freeze or can them as they are, or dice up and then freeze or can. I like to dice and freeze them - I use a large cutting board with a gutter to catch the juice. I have to drain it often; I dump the juice in with the tomatoes. I then give the diced bunch to my children who scoop it out by cupfuls into quart sized freezer bags.
I prefer Roma tomatoes over all - they seem the easiest to process ... their skins come of quickly and they are more dry than other tomatoes, thus making them easier to dice and handle. Also, I think they are 'pretty' and they taste really good! All tomatoes are good though and we try to grow a variety each year.We have 26 quarts in the freezer so far ... I pray we get a lot more! Really, I would like to have one bag for every day of the year; we like to use these tomatoes for soups, spaghetti sauce, and stews.
In Christ,
Joanne
One bag for every day of the year! That's impressive.
ReplyDeleteWe may be able to snag a 25 cu ft. deep freeze from the food bank where I volunteer, if I get it, (praying it is the Lord's will!) I plan on freezing a ton of stuff this fall. Right now, my other upright freezer is full of soybeans. Yummy!
Tomatoes around here have been crummy! Bad year for them, I guess. It sure would be nice to move to an area with distinct seasons.