I've been harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. I tried to keep
up and eat as much as I can and also give away a lot but the tomatoes
keep coming and coming every day. Now the thought of eating another
tomato turns my stomach.

Does anyone have good tips on freezing these? My parent's put them in
boiling water for a couple of minutes and then peel the skins, smash them
up, and put them in ziplock bags to freeze. That seemed a little too
much work for me so I just cut them up, put them in a blender, liquefied
them, and put them in ziplock bags. Since my liquefied tomatoes
contained skins I'm not sure how this is going to taste when I thaw them
in the winter for chili. I also have a lot of basil and one bag I
experimented by throwing some basil in the blender with the tomatoes.
I'm not sure how this is going to taste either.

These tomato plants were so much work I don't want to waste any of the
tomatoes but it's going to be a couple of months before I'll be able to
eat one again.

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:11:17 -0500, Mark Anderson
wrote:

I've been harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. I tried to keep
up and eat as much as I can and also give away a lot but the tomatoes
keep coming and coming every day. Now the thought of eating another
tomato turns my stomach.

Does anyone have good tips on freezing these? My parent's put them in
boiling water for a couple of minutes and then peel the skins, smash them
up, and put them in ziplock bags to freeze. That seemed a little too
much work for me so I just cut them up, put them in a blender, liquefied
them, and put them in ziplock bags. Since my liquefied tomatoes
contained skins I'm not sure how this is going to taste when I thaw them
in the winter for chili. I also have a lot of basil and one bag I
experimented by throwing some basil in the blender with the tomatoes.
I'm not sure how this is going to taste either.

These tomato plants were so much work I don't want to waste any of the
tomatoes but it's going to be a couple of months before I'll be able to
eat one again.


Can them whole, can them as juice, can them as spaghetti sauce,
can them as chili sauce, but just can them. I remember one summer my
mother and I went through about 12 bushel of tomatoes, canning them in
one form or another. We were using any jar that we could dig up that
would accept a mason lid or a clamp-down rubber ring. We canned more
produce that year than we could eat in the whole next year. If we
found some jars, we'd find something to put in them. Can those
tomatoes, for next year your crop may not come in at all.

Fried green tomatoes is right nice! Also...
Canning is great for tomatoes, make salsa, or V-8 juice, or tomato juice, or
even better here is a link to a wine recipe that won two first place ribbons
in competitions. They are too good to waste!
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques14.asp



"Mark Anderson" wrote in message
.net...
I've been harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. I tried to keep
up and eat as much as I can and also give away a lot but the tomatoes
keep coming and coming every day. Now the thought of eating another
tomato turns my stomach.

Does anyone have good tips on freezing these? My parent's put them in
boiling water for a couple of minutes and then peel the skins, smash them
up, and put them in ziplock bags to freeze. That seemed a little too
much work for me so I just cut them up, put them in a blender, liquefied
them, and put them in ziplock bags. Since my liquefied tomatoes
contained skins I'm not sure how this is going to taste when I thaw them
in the winter for chili. I also have a lot of basil and one bag I
experimented by throwing some basil in the blender with the tomatoes.
I'm not sure how this is going to taste either.

These tomato plants were so much work I don't want to waste any of the
tomatoes but it's going to be a couple of months before I'll be able to
eat one again.

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:11:17 -0500, Mark Anderson
wrote:

Does anyone have good tips on freezing these? My parent's put them in
boiling water for a couple of minutes and then peel the skins, smash them
up, and put them in ziplock bags to freeze.
------
I freeze lots of cherry tomatoes. Just rinse them and freeze them.
I use them in sandwiches throughout the year by partially thawing
and then flattening them using the blade of my chef's knife.

I also get many pounds of tomatoes as you described and
process them in about 5 to 10 pound batches where I'll liquify
them using the blender as you described. Then what I'll do is
strain them to remove the seeds and large bits of skin. I store
the liquified tomatoes in the refrig until I get about 15 cups of
liquified tomatoes that I'll cook to make spaghetti sauce
and pizza sauce. I do the same thing by cooking some Chili
and freezing it. Each batch of spaghetti sauce I cook typicaly
includes about 6 pounds of beefcubes/meatballs/sausage
that I also freeze.

I freeze the cooked sauces and store them in those plastic
containers that measure about 10" by 6" by 2". When I need
sauce throughout the year, I place the frozen block on my cutting
board and use an ice pick to put a few dimples in a straight line
across the block then I drive the pick all the way through in the
center and the piece I need breaks off cleanly. Actually quite
easy to do this. You can always get just the right amount you
need for any meal, large or small.

One other thing I do with all this cooked sauce is I'll make a
huge batch of Lasagna and cut it into meal sized pieces and
freeze it in plastic containers.

Sure, all the above is lots of work but it really pays off throughout
the year when you can put together great meals in very short
time using the frozen goods. Using my frozen goods, I can put
together a meal of chii in about 3 minutes. I can put together a
meal of pasta & meat using my frozen spaghetti sauce &
frozen meats in about 15 minutes.

I also make lots of pizza pies throughout the year with my
frozen pizza sauce but that is a whole story in itself. grin

---pete---

writes:
I've been harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. I tried to keep
up and eat as much as I can and also give away a lot but the tomatoes
keep coming and coming every day. Now the thought of eating another
tomato turns my stomach.

Does anyone have good tips on freezing these?

I dropped tomatoes in a large plastic container in the freezer and cooked
them later for juice. When I do that, I don't bother to do anything
except rinse them and put them in the container. I've done this mostly to
accumulate enough to make a huge pot of tomato juice. When I have enough,
I add the herbs, etc., and cook it all together for incredible tomato
juice.

Another thing to do is to dry them. A dehydrator does a wonderful job on
tomato slices. This year, I purchased a food processor so that will speed
up the tomato slicing. Dried slices can be stored like that or powdered.
Either way; they will be good for cooking (or snacks for the slices) any
time in the future. So far, none of mine have made it to cooking as we
eat the slices like candy. :-)

I hope to actually try some dried tomato powder and basil in homemade
spaghetti noodles this year; reports have it that it's delicious.

Glenna

Mark Anderson wrote:

I've been harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. I tried to keep
up and eat as much as I can and also give away a lot but the tomatoes
keep coming and coming every day. Now the thought of eating another
tomato turns my stomach.

I enjoy fresh tomatoes from the garden but I have also learned to can them.
It's not difficult to do but if you are balking at peeling and then
freezing them, I suspect it would be best if you only planted one or two
vines next year.

My wife and I look forward to canning as much tomato juice as we possibly
can because we really like tomato juice and the stuff that comes from the
store is best used for washing dogs who offended skunks. It is certainly
not fit for human consumption. Last year we put away 44 qts of juice and
were out of it before February. This year I am shooting for ~100 qts. (14 -
15 canner loads x 7 qts/load).

I should have a powered Victorio food mill coming tomorrow. The hand mill
takes just too much time for the amount of produce we process and the
amount of 'spare' time we have available. We both work and are very active
in our religion and it's tough to peel more time out of an evening than the
hour or so it takes to get a load through the canner.

We have 41 qts of dill pickles (and counting), 9 pints of a very tasty
salsa, 40 1/2 pints of strawberry jam, some dried herbs (dill, oregano, 3
kinds of mint,chamomille, sage), 4 pints dilled green beans, perhaps 20
pounds of garlic and 80 pounds of onions and are only 'getting started'
with the season.

Although we certainly save money by putting food away, we find that we
derive our greatest pleasure from the variety of tastes we get from our own
garden that we simply can't buy in the local stores.

When you open yourself to preserving food, you open the door to flavors you
never knew existed ... good flavors that make no apologies.

Bill
--
Zone 8b (Detroit, MI)
I do not post my address to news groups.

Mark Anderson wrote in message y.net...
I've been harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. I tried to keep
up and eat as much as I can and also give away a lot but the tomatoes
keep coming and coming every day. Now the thought of eating another
tomato turns my stomach.

Does anyone have good tips on freezing these? My parent's put them in
boiling water for a couple of minutes and then peel the skins, smash them
up, and put them in ziplock bags to freeze. That seemed a little too
much work for me so I just cut them up, put them in a blender, liquefied
them, and put them in ziplock bags. Since my liquefied tomatoes
contained skins I'm not sure how this is going to taste when I thaw them
in the winter for chili. I also have a lot of basil and one bag I
experimented by throwing some basil in the blender with the tomatoes.
I'm not sure how this is going to taste either.

These tomato plants were so much work I don't want to waste any of the
tomatoes but it's going to be a couple of months before I'll be able to
eat one again.
Hi there, Have you thought of maybe canning your tomatoes? It is
really easy. You can add onions, bell peppers and garlic to the
tomatoes then can them also. If not, you could always send them to
me!

I've frozen the suckers whole, in zip lock bags. Just wash and freeze! When
I need tomatoes for a recipie, I take a bag out, put the frozen tomatoes,
sans bag, into a collander and run hot water over them. The skin peels right
off and you can use them whole or cut them while frozen. Only problem I had
was chasing those slippery frozen balls around on my cutting board! Boy can
they slide.
--
Jayel
"---Pete---" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:11:17 -0500, Mark Anderson
wrote:

Does anyone have good tips on freezing these? My parent's put them in
boiling water for a couple of minutes and then peel the skins, smash them
up, and put them in ziplock bags to freeze.
------
I freeze lots of cherry tomatoes. Just rinse them and freeze them.
I use them in sandwiches throughout the year by partially thawing
and then flattening them using the blade of my chef's knife.

I also get many pounds of tomatoes as you described and
process them in about 5 to 10 pound batches where I'll liquify
them using the blender as you described. Then what I'll do is
strain them to remove the seeds and large bits of skin. I store
the liquified tomatoes in the refrig until I get about 15 cups of
liquified tomatoes that I'll cook to make spaghetti sauce
and pizza sauce. I do the same thing by cooking some Chili
and freezing it. Each batch of spaghetti sauce I cook typicaly
includes about 6 pounds of beefcubes/meatballs/sausage
that I also freeze.

I freeze the cooked sauces and store them in those plastic
containers that measure about 10" by 6" by 2". When I need
sauce throughout the year, I place the frozen block on my cutting
board and use an ice pick to put a few dimples in a straight line
across the block then I drive the pick all the way through in the
center and the piece I need breaks off cleanly. Actually quite
easy to do this. You can always get just the right amount you
need for any meal, large or small.

One other thing I do with all this cooked sauce is I'll make a
huge batch of Lasagna and cut it into meal sized pieces and
freeze it in plastic containers.

Sure, all the above is lots of work but it really pays off throughout
the year when you can put together great meals in very short
time using the frozen goods. Using my frozen goods, I can put
together a meal of chii in about 3 minutes. I can put together a
meal of pasta & meat using my frozen spaghetti sauce &
frozen meats in about 15 minutes.

I also make lots of pizza pies throughout the year with my
frozen pizza sauce but that is a whole story in itself. grin

---pete---

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:11:17 -0500, Mark Anderson
wrote:


These tomato plants were so much work I don't want to waste any of the
tomatoes but it's going to be a couple of months before I'll be able to
eat one again.

One good way to freeze them it to make them into pasta sauce
first, then freeze the sauce. That would use the basil too.

I've never frozen tomatoes other than as sauce but I bought
a dryer this year, and I'm drying them. This works very
nicely.

Pat

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 22:20:52 -0700, (Glenna
Rose) wrote:

Another thing to do is to dry them. A dehydrator does a wonderful job on
tomato slices. This year, I purchased a food processor so that will speed
up the tomato slicing. Dried slices can be stored like that or powdered.
Either way; they will be good for cooking (or snacks for the slices) any
time in the future. So far, none of mine have made it to cooking as we
eat the slices like candy. :-)

I was surprised how good the home-dried tomato slices taste
- quite a few of ours got eaten quickly too.

Pat

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 01:40:37 -0400, Noydb
wrote:



Although we certainly save money by putting food away, we find that we
derive our greatest pleasure from the variety of tastes we get from our own
garden that we simply can't buy in the local stores.

This is the main thing, plus the nice feeling of
satisfaction you get from having accomplished it yourself.

It's also good for the earth: uses fewer resources, makes
less pollution.

When you eat the home-grown and home-processed pickles or
tomatoes or whatever, you're not making the earth bear the
pollution burden of transporting them thousands of miles
across the country.


When you open yourself to preserving food, you open the door to flavors you
never knew existed ... good flavors that make no apologies.


Yep.

Pat

Wash, dry, place in zip lock bag and put in freezer. Pull them out to
use as you need them. The skins slide right off when they thaw. You
can toss them in soups and sauces to get a nice fresh tomato flavor all
winter.

We dry a lot of ours, but then, we have a dehydrator. Anyone got one
you can borrow?

Donate to the local food bank?

marcella

In article ,
Mark Anderson wrote:

I've been harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. I tried to keep
up and eat as much as I can and also give away a lot but the tomatoes
keep coming and coming every day. Now the thought of eating another
tomato turns my stomach.

Does anyone have good tips on freezing these? My parent's put them in
boiling water for a couple of minutes and then peel the skins, smash them
up, and put them in ziplock bags to freeze. That seemed a little too
much work for me so I just cut them up, put them in a blender, liquefied
them, and put them in ziplock bags. Since my liquefied tomatoes
contained skins I'm not sure how this is going to taste when I thaw them
in the winter for chili. I also have a lot of basil and one bag I
experimented by throwing some basil in the blender with the tomatoes.
I'm not sure how this is going to taste either.

These tomato plants were so much work I don't want to waste any of the
tomatoes but it's going to be a couple of months before I'll be able to
eat one again.

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:11:17 -0500,since it's all about me
Mark Anderson professed:

I've been harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. I tried to keep
up and eat as much as I can and also give away a lot but the tomatoes
keep coming and coming every day. Now the thought of eating another
tomato turns my stomach.

glare

*******!


Pam, coming off two years of The War of the spit Thrips
and their WMD, Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus.



--
"Maybe you'd like to ask the Wizard for a heart."
"ElissaAnn"

J. Lane wrote:

I've frozen the suckers whole, in zip lock bags. Just wash and freeze! When
I need tomatoes for a recipie, I take a bag out, put the frozen tomatoes,
sans bag, into a collander and run hot water over them. The skin peels right
off and you can use them whole or cut them while frozen. Only problem I had
was chasing those slippery frozen balls around on my cutting board! Boy can
they slide.
This is exactly what I have done for years. A LOT better, easier
and cheaper than canning.

Bill

Xref: kermit rec.gardens.edible:62514

What is your recipe for dill pickles.



Noydb wrote:

Mark Anderson wrote:

I've been harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. I tried to keep
up and eat as much as I can and also give away a lot but the tomatoes
keep coming and coming every day. Now the thought of eating another
tomato turns my stomach.

I enjoy fresh tomatoes from the garden but I have also learned to can them.
It's not difficult to do but if you are balking at peeling and then
freezing them, I suspect it would be best if you only planted one or two
vines next year.

My wife and I look forward to canning as much tomato juice as we possibly
can because we really like tomato juice and the stuff that comes from the
store is best used for washing dogs who offended skunks. It is certainly
not fit for human consumption. Last year we put away 44 qts of juice and
were out of it before February. This year I am shooting for ~100 qts. (14 -
15 canner loads x 7 qts/load).

I should have a powered Victorio food mill coming tomorrow. The hand mill
takes just too much time for the amount of produce we process and the
amount of 'spare' time we have available. We both work and are very active
in our religion and it's tough to peel more time out of an evening than the
hour or so it takes to get a load through the canner.

We have 41 qts of dill pickles (and counting), 9 pints of a very tasty
salsa, 40 1/2 pints of strawberry jam, some dried herbs (dill, oregano, 3
kinds of mint,chamomille, sage), 4 pints dilled green beans, perhaps 20
pounds of garlic and 80 pounds of onions and are only 'getting started'
with the season.

Although we certainly save money by putting food away, we find that we
derive our greatest pleasure from the variety of tastes we get from our own
garden that we simply can't buy in the local stores.

When you open yourself to preserving food, you open the door to flavors you
never knew existed ... good flavors that make no apologies.

Bill
--
Zone 8b (Detroit, MI)
I do not post my address to news groups.