Tip for Cherry Tomato Lovers
 

Hi folks, I just like to share a tip with anyone who grows lots
of cherry tomatoes. You can enjoy those tomatoes all year
long and use them in salads and sandwiches so grow lots
of them and don't give them away!

Here the tip...

Freezing the Tomatoes....
Wash and bag your ripe cherry tomatoes in quart or gallon
freezer bags. Then freeze them. For those large cherry tomatoes
that are larger than 1.25 inches in diameter, you can cut them in
half before freezing them.

For Salads...
For salds, make your basic salad and at the last minute, grab a
handful of frozen cherry tomatoes and run them under warm tap
water to partially thaw them. Thaw them just to the point where
they are cold and soft and add them to the salad. You have to
eat them right away because if allowed to fully defrost, they
become too mushy. However, when they are thawed just right,
you get the flavor of a fresh picked tomato with a cool temperature
and soft texture close to fresh picked. Not perfect, but still better
than store bought tomatoes in the off season.

For Sandwiches....
For sandwiches, make your basic sandwich and then grab a
handful of frozen cherry tomatoes and run them under warm tap
water to partially thaw them. I hold them in both hands and kind
of squeeze them until I feel they are getting soft and the skins are
coming loose. Then I place a tomato on my cutting board near the
edge of the board and use the broadest part of my chef's knife
and the heel of my hand to compress the globe transforming it into
1 inch to 1.25 inch disk about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Careful
because sometimes they go flying across the room grin. With a
little practice you will learn to do it right. Repeat this on all the
partially thawed tomatoes. Scoop up each tomato disk using the flat
part of your chef's knife and transfer them to the sandwich. If you
thawed them correctly they will hold their form and have a texture
very close to fresh picked. Still, not perfect, but better than store
bought tomatoes in the off season.

PS: I'm in USA, New Jersey and in July of year following my
harvest I'm still eating my frozen cherry tomatoes and anxiously
waiting for the fresh ones to ripen. I use my frozen cherry tomatoes
to make BLTs and Hoagies (Sub sandwiches) all year round
in the off season. I never buy store bought tomatoes any more.

Enjoy!

---pete---