How To Preserve Tomatoes in the Freezer

In my neck of the woods the tomatoes are producing like mad right now.  I have quite a few tomato plants in the garden, including Roma tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, yellow cherry tomatoes, a few types of red cherry tomatoes, and a few larger unknown varieties.  With all the rain and warm temps we've had over the last few months the vines are absolutely loaded with fruit, and I pick a good sized basket full every day now.  I've already used some of the larger tomatoes for chili and a chicken dish, and I munch on the cherry tomatoes like they're candy.  I still end up with more tomatoes than I can use before they go bad though.  I know many people like to can tomatoes, but the thought of adding even more heat to an already hot house isn't very appealing to me.  Several years ago I discovered that you can preserve tomatoes very simply by freezing them.  Just place your washed and dried tomatoes in a single layer on a cookie sheet (I put a towel on my so the tomatoes don't get bruised) and put the sheet in the freezer.  Use the best tomatoes you can for this.  Try to avoid freezing tomatoes with bruises, spots, or other damage- use those fresh and just cut out the bad spots.

 

Let the tomatoes harden up for several hours until they're frozen solid.  Then you can just store them in a freezer bag and pull out what you need as you need it.  To thaw the tomatoes you can put them under running water.  As the tomatoes thaw the skins slip off, which is very convenient.  This works for any size or type of tomato.  Don't try to put them in the bag before they're frozen because they'll probably get squashed and it will be a mess when you go to thaw them out.  (Trust me, I'm speaking from experience- LOL).  I usually end up with enough preserved tomatoes to get me through the winter and following spring.  And when you freeze them at the peak of ripeness like this that delicious flavor (along with all those healthy nutrients) is preserved beautifully.  I turn my tomatoes into pasta sauce, chili, tacos, and all sorts of delicious things.  They blend beautifully with the garlic, onions, peppers, eggplant, and fresh herbs from my garden.
I just wanted to share this useful little tip for preserving tomatoes- it's saved me a lot of time and tomatoes!
Thanks for stopping by! =)
-Michelle of CreativeCritters

My garden

It's been a rough spring for my vegetable garden, but those plants that survived the cold and wet weather are now thriving in the summer heat.  My cucumbers are doing quite well, loaded with pretty yellow flowers and little baby cucumbers.  I think this is the best year I've had so far for cucumbers.  Most of the plants survived and are now producing vegetables.

 

Eggplants are slow growers, and only about half the plants I started with survived.  The survivors are getting bigger now, and their flowers should start opening in the next few weeks.  Even if this plant didn't produce a delicious vegetable it has beautiful purple flowers and large soft fuzzy leaves.  Like many garden plants, you could grow it for looks alone. ;-)

 

I'm also starting to get tomatoes.  As usual, once the temperature warmed up the tomato plants grew like crazy.  For me there's no such thing as too many tomatoes.  What I don't eat fresh off the vine I turn into tomato sauce which I use in recipes all year long.  When I harvest more tomatoes than I can eat I wash them, place them on a baking tray, and stick them in the freezer until they're firm.  Then I seal them in plastic bags to store.  When I want to make sauce I thaw them out and the peels slip right off .  I think it's the easiest way I've found of preserving tomatoes.

 

The Bell peppers are also growing nicely and will be getting flowers any day now.  These seeds were mixed colors, so I could be harvesting, red, yellow, orange, and purple peppers soon.  I don't care for hot peppers, but I do love a nice crisp sweet Bell pepper.

 

 

And this is the first baby zucchini of the season.  I spotted a few more little ones today, and should have some yellow squash mixed in too.  Most of those plants look pretty good and they all have lots of flowers.  Zucchini and squash plants are usually pretty tough, and one plant can produce many vegetables.  I've got all sorts of delicious recipes for zucchini, and I enjoy it fresh from the garden in a salad.

 

 

And I just harvest some of the garlic I planted early last fall.  Like many bulbs, garlic divides and spreads: each of those little cloves can become an entirely new bulb of garlic.  I started with just a few bulbs several years ago, and this is what I harvested the other day.  And this isn't everything I planted either- I left some of the bulbs to grow larger, and may have another harvest again in the fall.

 

 

And I would have beans right now if the bunny hadn't eaten every single bean plant in the garden!  But it's hard to stay mad at anything this cute.

 

 

So I just fixed the holes in the fence and had a stern talk with the little rascal about not eating my vegetables.  The beans are actually getting leaves again, so I may get a small late season harvest.  

This is always the time of the year when the results of all my hard work in the garden start to show.  These fragile plants I started from tiny seeds are now big, strong, and vibrant.  I'm still amazed that huge plants like tomatoes (mine will be taller than me soon) start from a tiny little seed.  These resilient vegetables have battled harsh weather: rain, wind, hail, and frigid temperatures, insect attacks from bean beetles, cucumber beetles, slugs, and more,  and animals stripping their leaves from the stems.  And yet they continue to grow and most will produce nourishing vegetables until the first frost of fall.  A garden is so much more than just some dirt and plants- it's a life and death struggle, sometimes on a microscopic scale.  I can get lost in the beauty and magic of my garden.  Thanks for stopping in and sharing some of that garden magic! ;-)

-Michelle of CreativeCritters

Put more vegetables out in the garden

My eggplants and bell peppers  have been out in the garden for a few weeks now and are doing well in their protective Wall 'O Waters and Cozy Coats.  In spite of all the rain we've been having, along with colder than normal temperatures, the plants have survived and even grown a bit.  Right about now I am SO thankful I made raised beds when I started this garden!  There's been at least an inch (and up to 4 inches) of water between the beds for the last few weeks.  I got a few decent days though and I was able to harden off my yellow bush beans, green beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes.  This year I'm planting the tomatoes between the peppers and eggplants, which means they'll also benefit from the warmth of the Wall 'O Waters.
 
Because it's been so cold and windy this spring I also wrapped a long sheet of plastic around the entire row for added protection. 

 
So far the little guys look pretty good.  The beans are planted in the middle row.  I set up a wire fence for them to climb before I planted them.  I was going to wait on nicer weather, but beans get so big, so fast!  I could practically watch them grow under the light!  They seem to be doing pretty good too, and have even started climbing their support after only a few days. 
 
That's my garlic that you see behind the beans.  It looks really good this year, and by midsummer I should be able to dig my first bulbs.  The onions I planted earlier this spring are getting bigger too.  I use onions and garlic in almost everything I cook, so it only makes sense to grow my own.
The cucumbers also have a fence to climb up for support.  I just used my old garden fence and cut it into the lengths I needed, then used stakes shoved deep into the dirt to secure it.  Another good thing about allowing the vegetables to climb is that they stay off the ground, which means fewer bugs and animals (like voles, my worst garden pest!) can get at them.  Air can circulate around the veggies better and that means less chance of rotting.  Plus they're easier to harvest and monitor when they're not on the ground, covered in leaves (and probably weeds).
 
I still have to put out my summer squash and zucchini, but I'm going to let them stay inside for a little longer.  I also started a second batch of beans so I'll have a longer harvest time.  Hopefully I can come back in a month or so and show you pictures of much larger plants, and maybe even a few veggies ;-)
Thanks for visiting my garden and watching it grow with me!
-Michelle of CreativeCritters