Last updated on September 13th, 2015
Red ones. Green ones. Yellow ones. Striped ones. Are late-summer tomatoes swallowing your kitchen counter top, too? Here, the weather’s too hot for boiling, peeling, and canning the fruit. Consequently I’m eating some of the tomatoes fresh, and freezing the rest:
And how do I enjoy fresh tomatoes?
Not a week passes during tomato season when I don’t make Tomato Pie. It’s nothing more than tomatoes, basil, cheddar cheese, and mayonnaise, baked to puffed perfection on a bed of store-bought biscuits. And boy howdy, it’s delicious! Here’s the easy recipe.
You might not think that tomatoes and peaches (or nectarines) “go” together, but trust me — they do! I like to dress the fruit with basil, vinegar, and bits of burrata cheese for the sexiest salad on earth. My step-by-step recipe.
Here’s another winner in my “love-apple” repertoire: Puff Pastry Pesto Pizza. You can serve it as the main course for lunch or the first-course for dinner. It makes a terrific after-school snack, too. Yum! The easy recipe.
Cherry tomatoes? I love them slow-roasted…
Or raw in this garden-fresh tabbouleh.
As for the tomatoes that would otherwise perish because of my slothfulness, I freeze them whole. These frozen subjects will wait until I’m ready to turn them into sauce, or to add them to soups and stews.
Warning! Freezing tomatoes is an easy, easy job. Here’s the step-by-step:
Take some tomatoes…
And seal them in a plastic bag.
Put the bag in the freezer.
When you are ready to use the frozen fruit, just drop it into a bowl of warm water…
And voila! — the skin will slip right off!
Will tomatoes lose some of their flavor after freezing? Maybe. But if you simmer the sauce long enough, the flavor that remains will become concentrated. And frankly, I don’t mind the extra simmering-time when a snow storm is raging outside my window.
So tell me: Did your tomato plants surprise you with a hefty harvest this year? You can let me know by leaving a comment. As always, I love hearing from you!
Don’t miss anything at A Garden for the House…sign up for Kevin’s email updates.
Kathy says
I have done this for the last couple of years.And you are right when you put them in soups,stews,goolash or spanish rice very delishes.When you see the winter weather out side in upstate NY ..nothing like a fresh tomatoe.
badger gardener says
It has been a mediocre year at best for tomatoes here in SE Wisconsin. Mine have been so slow to ripen that I finally bought a bunch at the Farmers market for the must have tomato pie. The farmer I talked to said he too was having a slow year with tomatoes as only 1 of his varieties is ripening up well. A bunch of my blossoms seemed to fall too, so I have less total tomatoes. On paper, this year isn’t so different from last year when I had a bumper crop. Go figure. You never know what you are going to get. (Oh my gosh am I quoting Foresst Gump?)
Today I am making a chard quiche and can’t find your green quiche recipe. Found a link through another post but it is no longer there. Yours seemed to have the perfect ratio of egg to cream/half and half. I’m trying to go by memory.
LISA says
Have LOT OF rOMA TOMATOES, NOT RIPE YET, GOING TO MAKE SUGO (ITALIAN SAUCE),
Pat Long-Gilbert says
My romas are doing very well – I halve them lengthwise, drizzle a wee bit of olive oil, add a smidge of finely chopped fresh basil and oven roast them…..when done, let cool and skins slip right off and tomatoes go into freezer bags. Super easy and delish.
Did a tomato pie last weekend with Bob’s Red Mill GF biscuit mix (have a family member with celiacs) and it was even better than with the canned biscuits! Never been a huge fan of canned biscuits, so think I will stick with just using biscuit mix from here on out. The crust just seems to hold up a little better. (Man, I love tomato pie!!!)
I have done smaller tomatoes and frozen them whole and used them instead of whole stewed tomatoes. Much, much preferred and the summer flavor is still there.
🙂
Christine Ferrigno says
Well I have been wasting my time slicing them into chunks before freezing them!! Not anymore! Thanks for the tip
Deborah Philippi says
Our garden has produced more this year than I can remember in years past! It’s a fairly garden, but has produced SO much! We added shredded leaves and manure to it, and we’re wondering if this extra boost to the soil played a role.
Annette Guilfoyle says
One of my favorite ways to preserve tomatoes is in Roasted Tomatoe Sauce. Lightly grease or spray an 8x 11 pan. Set oven at 200*. Core but do not peel enough tomatoes to near fill pan, add a peeled onion, a cored green pepper, and a couple of cloves of peeled garlic. Roast overnight night or about 8 hours. Allow to cool and place in one or two zip locks. You can scrunch the mixture in the zip lock or leave it chunky. I add my spices while heating it up. It is great on pasta or in chili, or with chicken parm.
This recipe came from the Williams Sonoma catalogue about 20 years ago.
Beverly, zone 6, eastern PA says
I double up the tomato plants in each [large] cage to save on “real estate” in the garden which also makes it slightly easier for future rotation of crops, since I am limited on total square footage. I grow 7 or 8 types of tomatoes annually, about 15-20 plants, many heirlooms. This year so far I have run three full loads of sliced tomatoes in my Excalibur Dehydrator (5 tray model) rendering a substantial harvest down to two small zipper bags in the freezer each time. Later, these leathery beauties will transform into the taste tingling Dried Tomato Pesto.
Just in case you are wondering about amounts, I use a standard sized serving tray, larger than a cafeteria lunch tray, as my “template”. When the tray is filled with tomatoes, crowded even, I have enough to run a full load. It’s so heavy at that time I have trouble lugging it up the steps to the kitchen.
I also roast baking trays of tomatoes for 3 hours or more, halved with cut side up, at a low oven temp, along with parts of my onion and garlic crops, plus some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. When cooled, packaged and frozen, they become instant sauce for winter meals.
Rod Lutes says
I’ve had a lot more tomatoes this year than I thought I would. This week I made salsa and bottled it with the extra tomatoes. This past weekend I picked one off my Big Rainbow tomato that weighed just over a pound, the biggest tom. I’ve ever had.
I did have to pull one of my Sungold plants yesterday as it had late blight on it and I didn’t want it to spread to the other plants.
Mary in Iowa says
San Marzano, Principe Borghese, and 3 cherry varieties are doing fine, but the big heirlooms are dawdling. Two things to which you’ve introduced me recently have been, as you put it, revelations: Burrata cheese and the serrated fruit/vegetable peeler. Got the peeler too late for the hundreds of peaches, but when making an “everything but the kitchen sink” soup last week, I gave it a trial run on San Marzanos. UNBELIEVABLE, BUT FANTASTIC! Today, made a variation on the burrata salad with halved cherry tomatoes and halved big fat red grapes, and it also was delicious. Thanks for the new culinary adventures. The only potential problem I see with Burrata is that it may soon require that I buy a larger size wardrobe, and that’s simply not in my budget. 🙂
Gretchen says
I freeze whole tomatoes by following these steps but then vacuum freezing them after they’ve frozen solid. I’m not sure if it will keep them fresher but I went overboard with about 35 heirloom plants, and have been bringing in 1-2lbs of heirlooms per day.
Tressa says
Thanks Kevin!
Elizabeth says
My tomato plants are doing well, producing strong with no Michigan frosts in sight for at least a week and a half according to the weather man. I have frozen pureed tomatoes, but, hey guys—there’s only so much room in the freezer and we have just bee through strawberry season (my favorite) and blueberry season; oh, and a quart of red raspberries are coming in every other day!!! So, I am canning whole romas and making salsa and roasted garlic sauce. Ah–the joys of early fall in the mitten state!
CArolyn Ellertson says
You gals are making me miss my fall garden harvest, as we just relocated, and I had to bag a garden this year except for a few container tomatoes and zucchini, but next year in our new digs, I’m on it! Can’t wait, and in the process of researching winter sowing. Thanks for the inspiration everyone. Everything you are doing sounds terrific! Keep up the good work. It is only when you do not have it that you realize how much your gardening efforts contribute to your health, budget, and food satisfaction. Nothing in the supermarket can compare in either quality or value.. one cannot buy what we make at affordable prices.. I would be interested in hearing your winter gardening tips, as I hope to plant some cool weather vegetable seeds for winter sowing in large nursery pots. It gets very cold here at winter’s peak. Wanting to try the milk jug thing. I’ve used them for everything else, including starting plants, but never thought of making them little green houses for spring germination.. Brilliant!
Georgette says
Kevin I have bowls and bowls of cherry and grape tomatoes, can I freeze and use them the same way as regular sized tomatoes?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Georgette – Yes! The method works great for cherry and grape tomatoes.
Cindy M says
Hi Kevin!
Hope you’re having a great weekend and enjoying the cooler weather as much as I am. We’ve had a pretty successful year here in NJ for tomatoes so I’ve come to rely on many of your recipe ideas this season. A hearty Thank You for the incentive to try new things! We’ve been lucky enough to have the ability to share the abundance with the entire family as well as neighbors and friends and still have plenty left for ourselves:) I’ve been freezing tomatoes in this manner for as long as I can remember. I also do the same with the sauce I make if I don’t have time for canning. Just following in my 83 yr old Dad’s footsteps! With the season slowly coming to an end we’ll definitely miss having fresh picked tomatoes for daily use, but we’ll always have the satisfaction of knowing we’ve got these tasty, frozen goods to keep us happy and full until next year! Here’s to hoping for an easy Winter for all and dreams of another successful season next year!!
Kristal says
You can roast frozen tomatoes too after they thaw, for a Roasted Tomatoe sauce, olive oil, garlic.
JoAnne says
Had a nice crop of tomatoes. I still have a few small ones too pick. After trying canning and freezing last year, I decided freezing was delicious and much less hastle. My husband loves stewed tomatoes as a side dish. Of course, soup season is just around the corner.
Andreas says
Much better to use your own tomatoes from the freezer than buy the tasteless bullets available in the stores – the flavour has to be miles better even if they loose some in the freezing process.
Carol Samsel says
I had a crazy abundant crop this year and have canned so many tomatoes. Now as the cooler weather has landed they are not ripening in large numbers do I have started freezing them this way too. They do take up a lot of room in my small chest freezer so I may can some of them later to free up space for things that don’t can well .
Peg LeClair says
Oh my yes! We are buries in tomatoes! And green beans, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and cucumbers!
Linda says
Last year I was swimming in cherry tomatoes, 3 varities. I decided to try cooking them down into sauce and I was amazed at how great the sauce was. I will never use jarred sauce again, nor will I ever waste another cherry tomatoes because there are so many! The flavor of freshly made sauce is wonderful.
Megan says
Wow, did my tomatoes ever surprise me! We plant a lot of tomato plants anyway (140 this year, and 33 different varieties) but the amount of fruit was still astonishing. Lots of canning (and freezing, too) going on at my house!
Gladys Rellinger - 5B says
I have processed all of the tomatoes that I need or want (except the ones for daily dinner) so I posted a sign on the street beside my garden and neighbours are walking over and helping them selves. It is better than watching them rot on the stalks. I have forty plants. I think I will cut back for next year.
AllisonK says
My tomatoes were doing great and it looked like I would be able to can a couple dozen pints, after two bad years where I barely got enough to eat fresh. Then we got a week of heavy rains which caused almost all my tomatoes to split! I’ve only been able to salvage a few in the past 2 weeks. GRRRRRR!!!
nancy friesen says
My tomatoes are wonderful in Oregon. We will be picking them into October as usual. I’ve roasted them to make sauce, freezing and canning the sauce for later yumminess. Now I am sharing with family who seem to be almost tomato less. I don’t want them to be sad or jealous! I love you tomato pie. last year was our first time to make and devour it. And now this summer too!!
Pat McKeegan says
That simply can’t work I said to myself. But having some “last of the season” peaches and tomatoes on hand, and having invited an agreeable couple for a kitchen table supper, I gave the “sexiest salad” a try. Oh my! Oh my!!
Diane Gernetzke says
It was not a good year for me in Northern WI…so far, one tomato:{ Doesn’t look like the green ones will turn either and I have lots of blossoms that most likely just fall off. Bummer. But the good news is my dear lake neighbor, Jerry brings boxes of tomatoes up from the southern part of the state where he has an acre garden~he always shares his abundance so a couple weeks ago he dropped a HUGE box of all kinds of tomatoes (cherry, grape, slicing, roma) and we’ve been enjoying the small ones and I made sauce with large ones and now have bags of the red gold in my freezer for the next few months to come~I make lots of homemade pizzas so the sauce will come in handy!
Ardelle says
Enough from early planting and now the ‘free-lancers’ – yellow pear babies and some wonderful Rutgers – are ripening for my fall enjoyment – until the inevitable FROST sometime late this month. I have been freezing tomatoes for many years – I do peel, quarter, squish out seed clumps into a strainer and rub juice through and toss the seeds. I found that too many seeds can be a bit on the bitter side after freezing. Guests are convinced they are fresh tomatoes in my soups, stews – but they indeed have been frozen some for 2 years in my deep chest freezer. I am now freezing Swiss Chard and kale for use in soups during the winter – do you or any readers have ideas for using Swiss Chard and kale that’s been frozen?
brenda english says
I freeze my whole tomatoes the same way but defrost them differently—I put them in a bowl or colander in another bowl, and leave them in the sink over night—when they are thawed they are sitting in their own tomato water (tons of flavor!!) I then peel them, discard skins (unless I am blendering them)—then strain the flavorful tomato water and use it for my soups and stews and gazpacho—don’t throw that tomato water out!!—taste it , you’ll see
suzanne gravelle says
Yes, wonderful supply this year. I bake a big tray/cakepan full with shallots from the garden, some basil, salt and pepper to cook them down, brown them and generally make the best tomato sauce ever! you can whirl in a processor or just have it cruda in with fresh pasta! Wonderful fall flavours.I also can this concoction for winter goodness.
Jan says
Hi, Kevin,
Thanks so much for your wonderful blog! I’ve learned a lot and used many of your recipes and tips. I planted 40 tomatoes this year from seeds…many varieties. It’s been an incredibly good year for them and I’ve probably harvested over 300 lbs. Just yesterday for the first time, I’d about had it with canning different tomatoe things, so, decided to try your freezer idea. I did core them first because I was afraid they’d be too mushy to do so when used. What have I done with all of my tomatoes? Well, I’ve canned about 40 qts of pasta sauce, many pints of whole plain, and the food dehydratoe’s been going for a month dehydrating them into sun dried tomatoes that I’m storing in pretty jars with olive oil and garden herbs to use and give as Christmas gifts. What I plan to do with the rest of them is dry them and make tomato powder that I can use to thicken soups and in my homemade tortillas and breads. I was thinking I could purée the frozen, whole ones and dehydrate the purée on my plans stick sheets that are used for fruit leathers. However, after reading your blog, I may just try pureeing and making sauce out of them.
peggy says
We had beautiful plants, beautiful tomatoes, and enjoyed some early in the season. Then the pesky squirrels found them and picked every last one! So I have none to freeze :-(.
peggy says
Annette Guilfoyle, your sauce sounds great.
Kathy in Texas says
Hey Kevin, i really enjoy your blog and all the great information you send my way. I have had loads of tomatoes alsk and froze then just like you do. Then i have been putting them in my juicer skin, seeds and all. After that i cook them and season the mixture for spaghetti sauce i put in jars and put in my water bath canner. Viola i have a pantry full of spaghetti sauce!
Lyn says
More tomatoes than I can give away! Canned some but will try and freeze them this way. Plants not doing great, maybe some kind of blight, but the fruit is beautiful.Planted the Early Girl variety. Freeze here in Western NY some time in next few weeks will end the season. The cats keep the squirrels away from the garden.
CarolAnn says
Thanks for the tutorial on freezing tomatoes. I don’t have a garden but have a lot of tomatoes from a great sale at my store. I wanted to freeze but thought I’d have to cook or at least blanch them first. This was good to know.
Kate M says
Last year I lost all of my 35 tomato plants to late blight (it’s fairly new here in southern Maine). This year has more than made up for it. The stakes are bending from the weight of all the tomatoes the plants are bearing, and the fruit are huge! Never too many tomatoes, I say.
Tawni says
Kevin,
I keep seeing 2 intriguing colors of tomatoes in your garden. .. One almost looks black. ..And the other is 2 different types of green. ..Can you please put my curiosity at bay? ….What are the names of these 2 tomato variety. …
Sincerely
Tawni in Texas
Lori says
After 15 years of early blight, I resorted to strawbale gardening inside my high tunnel and it has paid off. I have collected over 319 pounds of tomatoes ( I haven’t added the ounces) and the tomatoes are going strong. Sadly I did have to throw out 2 batches of spaghetti sauce due to an unreliable/questionable recipe, but that just puts a small dent in all my finished canned goods. I also have two plants groiwng in strawbales that I end up giving to people just because I forget about them and I don’t have time to tackle those too.
Paula says
Thanks, Kevin, for the tips on freezing the tomatoes. Mine have been slow to ripen, but seem to be hitting their peak now. I just spent the last week wondering how to preserve my excess tomatoes, and now you’ve provided the answer.
Bonnie says
Tomatoes were a gigantic surprise this year. No tomatoes. Starting in May we usually have too many tomatoes to give away. Who knows? The tomato plants are just now absolutely gorgeous and loaded with tomatoes? We beat all past records in Oklahoma for highest rainfall in a year. We had only 3 days this summer that reached 100 degrees. I am now gathering gigantic horn worms daily and a few tomatoes. The birds try to get the tomatoes before they get a pink bottom. They are not very good quality (no flavor). They do not have spider mites or aphids? The leaves are very large and beautifully green in color. Oh well, we have raised and devoured more than our share possibly. It is not our turn. Very happy for everyone that has a bumper crop of tomatoes. Enjoy. Pasta sauce is my favorite way for freezing fresh tomatoes (olive oil protects the flavor of the tomato). Has anyone tried the OXO Good Grips Food Mill? I am looking at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (can use coupons). I may try it for tomatoes and raspberries to remove the seeds.
Denise says
I put many of my excess tomatoes up this way when I don’t have time to can or don’t want to heat oven up in summer to roast them. However, when it gets colder, I skin them, put them into a large crock-pot with lid on until they are heated through. Then I take the lid off and cook them down to desired thickness. Adds humidity and delicious aroma in the house in the winter with no burning on the bottom or constantly watching them. Sometimes don’t even skin them and just put everything through a cone sieve to make a smoother sauce.
paula says
My tomatoes were falling off before ripening, so I put them in paper bags to ripen. That didnt work so I lined them up on the back of my couch in a sunny window. I got home from work to find that our dog had smushed them into the couch, sprayed juice on the windows and down the wall. We will be using icky store-bought sauces this winter. 🙁
Bonnie says
tomatoes everywhere, but loving it. I slice some onto cookie sheets, as I like to use the sliced tomato in lasagna. I also freeze my tomatoes in brown paper lunch bags when they are coming in by the bushel. When the freezer starts to fail, I then take them out cook them down and can them so I have more freezer space. Canning of tomatoes is quite simple. When I do this I then have ample freezer space for squash and pumpkin that I had also an abundance of this year. I also can potatoes, but you need a pressure cooker to do so. I also roast tomatoes and then put them into freezer bags to be used in soup and lasagna. The garden has been good to us this year, and therefore I am grateful for everything that we have been given. We have several grapevines, and we have had at least 100 pounds of grapes to preserve this year all I can say is hallelujah.
Barb L. says
Not a big harvest here in SD. So I don’t have any to put up. My favorite method is to remove skins, chop, and heat until boiling. Then I pu them in canning jars and…..freeze them! I have enough freezer space, and in glass jars they keep forever without freezer burn, and retain their flavor! I can’t get enough of home-grown heirlooms!
Rita says
I tried this method last year for the 1st time on your recommendation, Kevin, & they were wonderful. What a treat & how easy to have a “fresh” tomato in the midst of winter. Thank you for all your wonderful tips.
Cathy says
Alas! No matter what I do MY racoon and opossum seem to find my tomatoes before I do. I keep planting but end up at the Farmers Market.
Chrisor says
I just found your website through another blog. I wish I’d known 10+ years ago that you could freeze whole tomatoes! I’ve never seen that anywhere else online. It’s ingenius! This year’s tomatoes are about done. It was a bad year all around for the garden. Usually we have tomatoes until the beginning of October in the Chicago area. I’ve done canning in the past but didn’t have enough this year except for several batches of homemade spaghetti sauce. Anyway, thanks for the tip and i’ll be back to check your blog! 🙂
anita says
We wash and chop them up, skin and all, and cook them down. Then put them in plastic bags, flattened out on a baking sheet or something similar and freeze them, for easy stacking in the freezer.
Kevin, should the whole tomatoes be washed before freezing? Or no?
Merry says
Yes, tomatoes were really slow to ripen this year here in MA, and those that did ripen somewhat, look poor! Only the cherries really came through, tho they were also late, and the ripe ones split as soon as they matured. The trick was to pick them before they fully ripened – they would ripen up without splitting once sitting quietly on top of the frig. Really missed those tasty brandywines and other heirlooms! So I agree with Badger – very strange tomato year!
Terri says
I was having a good tomato season until the Tomato hornworm caterpillars come to visit.
This was the first year I’ve had to deal with them. Before the invasion, I was getting a large amount of tomatoes from the Mortage Lifter plants. These tomatoes were over a pound each.
I also have Brandywine and Rutger tomato plants which were doing fine till the caterpillars took over. I hand picked the caterpillars off the plants and gave them to the chickens.
I did have enough tomatoes to make your Tomato Pie recipe and it was delicious.
I’m hoping to still have more tomatoes from other plants in a different garden so I can make tomato sauce for the winter.
I will also try freezing some.
Kathleen Killmeyer says
Hi Kevin – Thanks for all of the great recipe ideas! I have been freezing whole tomatoes for about 6 years now. I love it! It is perfect for when you are overwhelmed with the harvest and cannot think about canning the sauce. They come out perfect and I have even used them two years later with great success. I take mine out of the zip lock bags and put them in a lasagna style ceramic rectangular pan and add a little salt, vinegar, sugar, garlic, and italian herbs. I stick it in the oven at 300 degrees early morning and leave it there pretty much all day. Often we go out to see a movie and by dinner time I have the most enticing and delicious sauce you can imagine! It is so wonderful walking back into the house with that aroma! Other times I have taken them frozen and combined them in a Le Creuset cast iron pot with a frozen piece of meat (any kind works – lamb, pork, chicken) and again simmer it covered in the pot around 275 degrees all day. The meat comes out so tender you can pull it apart and you have a sauce pre-made. My tomatoes this year came in droves and my tomatillos are fabulous! This year’s roasted tomatillo salsa verde is heavenly and tucked away in jars. Also, another thing I should share is this year I decided to try something different with my tomato sauce preparation. I just take the peppers, garlic, onions, basil, parsley, and tomatoes (no peeling the tomatoes) and I throw them into the food processor and pulse them into a very thin chop. Then into the pot for simmering all day (sometimes longer) until I get it cooked down. Then I add canned tomato paste, vinegar, a bit of salt and sugar, dried herbs, and red pepper flakes, and simmer again until it is a perfect sauce consistency. This is so much easier than peeling and hand chopping the vegetables. It comes out crazy delicious every time! You can also add meat to the sauce as long as you use a pressure canner. I already have 32 quarts put away this year. Take care Kevin and thanks again for always sharing your fabulous ideas!
brenda english says
I have been using your winter sowing ‘milk jug greenhouses’ for 3 years or so now, for all of my saved seed garden starts. A fabulous revelation Kevin!!! I live on Vancouver island in Canada so I plant all my seeds out in their little houses in January and I plant a raised bed (2 old dresser drawers filled with dirt!-lol) of lettuces in February under some plastic and… I am eating and sharing lettuces with the neighbors by April, and they continue most of the season to produce lots of fresh greens. I get alot of people walking by my yard asking about the milk jugs, so I share your tips and your website address with them so they can go and find out your genius for themselves! I garden predominately in my front yard so it is very visible as I live right in town. This year I planted Indigo Rose Cherry Tomatoes and Black Russian Prince and one other heritage variety ) can’t remember the name of ) a large beefsteak type…plus, because I started all of them from seeds in the jugs the plants are so strong and I had a ton of them to share with all neighbors and anyone else that came to visit in the spring, all left with many plants! I probably had 150-200 tomato seedlings to give away to friends. Nobody had to buy plants this year! I planted 10 or 12 plants and have harvested near 100#’s so far and it looks as if another 100# or so is coming along well.
I eat a lot of tomatoes, right in the yard straight off the plant, a pleasure so many people who don’t garden just do not understand!…also in salads and just on their own plain with pure salt, fried green or ripe, grilled, roasted, in sauces and stewed in my slow cooker. I do them in the crockpot from fresh or frozen. Overnight in the slow cooker with a little homemade celery salt, cracked black pepper, little onion and celery dice, shot of Worcestershire sauce and a tiny shot of soya sauce. (umami boosters!) Waking up to a pot of stewed tomatoes ready to eat is the best breakfast ever! Last year I began smoking some of them, then turning them into smoked tomato salsa, pasta sauces and using them in soups and stews. Smoked tomatoes are fab flavor. I have been freezing them bagged and whole for decades as well. I also direct sowed leeks last fall from my own seed heads into a large dirt filled tote, and had about a million baby leeks!!! so I was able to share tons of the little green babies too. I LOVE LEEKS! Braised Leeks with fresh time (thank you Julia) are glorious.
Thank you Kevin, for sharing your knowledge and life with us on your wonderful site. I love to see it in my inbox every week!
brenda english says
**braised leeks with fresh THYME—please excuse typo in above comment–aauugghh! lol
Julie Arledge says
Since we grow tomatoes organically, not all of our tomatoes are as pretty as the ones in your photos. We cut off the bad parts and either freeze them or run them through the food mill for tomato juice. The seeds and skin left over from the juicing process are then ground in a food processor or with an immersion blender and dehydrated into flakes or leathers. We use the dehydrated tomatoes for soups throughout the year.
Kathleen Hussey says
Hi Kevin,Thanks for all your wonderful recipes and gardening tips. I love reading your blog.Would you have a recipe for Marguerita pie made on a skillet? Thanks again, Kathy H.
kathy passie says
Hi Kevin.. Tks for the info on freezing tomatoes. I have to make some of my red hot sauce,
(Mom’s secret recipe) and no time to do it.I’ll just freeze the tomatoes and make it later.
LOVE your recipes and blog. They make my day!
Hugs, Kathy P.
LB says
I planted mostly cherry tomatoes this year and man of man what a crop! I somehow managed to eat most of them as they came off the plants and only roasted and froze one batch. But we’re near the end now and I’m beginning to panic that I won’t have anything to perk me up when we’re snowed in here in the Hudson Valley! But now I’m finding that many of the cherry tomatoes are bursting open when I touch them. This is different from the splitting that I find on these and larger varieties. This is explosive, squirting juice and seeds all over! Does anyone know what causes this and how to prevent it? I also read once that it’s not a good idea to preserve tomatoes that have blight. Some of mine develop black spots if they’ve been on the counter a few days but looked perfectly fine when I picked them. I am wondering if they had blight all along and I should not be freezing or canning them. Any thoughts? Thanks.
Ruth Lee says
I seem to have a blight on my tomatoes, they start out good, and then turn white on the bottom and rot. Did this last year too. How can I fix this, please !!! I also need to know if you can use 7 dust on cabbage and still eat it , the bugs were terrible. HELP, PLEASE !!
Lorra says
Simply toss the partially frozen tomatoes in the blender, puree them and the skin and seeds will disappear … fresh tomato sauce!
Janice says
Hi Kevin!
After a recent move to Sonoma CA from the PNW, I was excited to try lots of new tomato varieties that require more heat and a longer growing season, so I planted 9 different varieties. Once they reached about 18 inches in height, they started disappearing….gophers were literally pulling whole tomato plants into the ground and I lost 6 that way before my husband became a gopher Hunter extraordinaire! Two that were left behind are old standbys, early girl and sungold, but one of the heirlooms that survived is called Black Prince, and it’s wonderful. All the tomatoes have produced heavily this year so I have been making bruschetta, freezing and roasting like crazy!
Samantha Gray says
Hope your holiday weekend was excellent! This has been a bad year for seeds on Long Island, and for gardens in general, at least on the north shore. First cool and rainy, with seeds rotting and requiring replanting. Then hotter than hell, and simply roasting the seeds before they could emerge regardless of watering. I bought cherry tomato sets in desperation, and they sat there doing exactly nothing until it began to cool down at night, at which point they set some fruit. Very stressed plants, however (two of 6 died – again no amount of water could sustain them), so how many tomatoes we’ll get I don’t know. My bean crop has come in and okra (wonderful for making water colour prints with the sliced pods) is finally producing. Hope the predicted return of high temperatures doesn’t kill everything.
Randall Panter says
I’ve been freezing and vacuum packing tomatoes of all types for several years here in British Columbia. They are consistently good just as you say. We surprise our friends with homemade sauces in early spring using tomatoes from the previous summer. They keep beautifully when vacuum packed.
I enjoy your postings Kevin; I share your recipes with my friends.
Lyn says
We here in oz had a wonderful crop this year, plenty for us and neighbors plus more for the freezer,, we love cooking with them especially tomato soup, will have to give your tomato pie a try when the new tomatoes are ready to pick,,, cheers
Lynda Kowalski says
My neighbors hide when they see me coming with baskets of tomatoes! Girls at the gym, guy siding our barn, mailman when he delivers a package to the door all get offers of tomatoes. I can and freeze them both and nothing beats a good bowl of chili in mid-winter with my garden tomatoes.
Beverly, zone 6, eastern PA says
With the oven and the immersion blender, I tried something new this year for my bountiful harvest of tomatoes in all sizes. First I roasted a deep tray of cut, skins-on tomatoes with 13 cloves (3 heads) of my own garlic minced, a big fat onion diced up, EVOO, Balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, some oregano, salt and pepper for about 2 hours at 350 degrees. When it cooled slightly, I moved the contents into an XL mixing bowl and applied the immersion blender. My sauce, which was frozen in cubes for winter use, is called a “roasted tomato/garlic/onion sauce”. Tonight I am serving this freshly made sauce over gnocchi with steamed fresh bush beans mixed in. Too easy!
Casey says
When freezing, do you wash the tomatoes first before sealing in the plastic bag?
Lori says
This is a bit late as I was saving these until I had to read them. 2015 I stopped counting poundage at 400 pounds. Not kidding. I gave oodles away. 2015 was the first time I froze tomatoes and loved canning in the winter. 2016 I decided to “do unto others…..” and every time I collected tomatoes, I shared half them with friends who didn’t have gardens. February 2017 and I will be canning my chest freezer plus upteen bags in the regular freezer next week. One thing I did different, I washed and cored them as the skins slipped off even easier.
TRogers says
Tons of Cherry & Roma tomatoes so far here in the south….Thank you for the information and will be freezing lots of Cherry/Roma tomatoes whole..as well as eating them fresh….yummmm!
T