TOOOOO Many Tomatoes, Help Please

greent

Hi ceridwen

I chop and freeze them straight into 'tupperware' and use in pasta sauces/ casseroles/ pizza topping/ ratatouille straight from the freezer. I also roast them (with or without other veg, depending on what I've got) with garlic and olive oil and use this stirred in to pasta - v yummy (freeze it in portion sizes in bags) Also yummy on ciabatta with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Finally there's good old chutney - I'll be making green tom chutney this year - probably only enough for a couple of jars, I expect, but red tom chutney with roasted garlic and chilli is gorgeous!

Zazen999

Unless I have lots of plum toms; I slice in half, and oven dry with olive oil and pepper and then freeze them....really brings the taste out and can keep that lovely tomato taste in all sorts of dishes all winter long.

cazj80

We make batches of tomato sauce, just with onion and then freeze it in portions. You can then use it as a base for lots of meals, just add the necessary ingredients, i.e. chilli if making a chilli! It tastes lovely and is a nice way of keeping some of the summer glut for winter!

ceridwen

Zazen999 wrote: »

Unless I have lots of plum toms; I slice in half, and oven dry with olive oil and pepper and then freeze them....really brings the taste out and can keep that lovely tomato taste in all sorts of dishes all winter long.

Ah right - I did have a go once at drying some tomatoes in my dehydrator and then putting in jars of olive oil - and they went mouldy:(.

So - I guess I do exactly the same again then - but this time store them in the freezer?? Is that what you did - or did you brush the sliced tomatoes with oil/sprinkle with pepper and just freeze them without any extra oil? (and then presumably use them any time a recipe called for sundried tomatoes in oil..)

Zazen999

I didn't even give it that much thought to be honest. I sliced them in half and put onto an oiled tray, drizzled [I HATE that word] with a little more and grated pepper on them and left them in a very low over for the day.

Then once cool, put them in a plastic container and froze. Probably easier if you freeze on the tray and then pop them off into a container so that it's easier to separate them. I just always forget to do that bit.

I use them in anything that needs a little boost

D&DD

My mum bottles her cherry toms in the oven I think. I dehydrate mine then store in the freezer so they blitz up better when added to dishes.
Romas (for past sauces) are first made into a sauce and last year I froze these but this year plan to dry and blitz to a powder..not tried it yet as they are still green.

champys

Hi Ceridwen - I tend to 'roast' the tomatoes in the oven, so the taste is concentrated and a lot of moisture evaporates (I add a little salt, pepper, maybe chilli and a pinch of sugar). Then I bottle the resulting 'sauce' using the pressure cooker. Freezing would be fine too, but so much stuff comes out of the garden at the end of the summer that freezer space is in short supply! The jars of roast tomato sauce are great to have in stock, and they don't need defrosting first when a recipe calls for some tinned or chopped tomatoes.

p.s. and I also add some crushed (home-grown) garlic when roasting!

greenbee

I just bung them in the freezer as they are and get them out when I want to use them for cooking. They are much easier to peel when they've been frozen

Primrose

Does anybody know if any community fruit/vegetable canning facilities exist today? I was looking at my 30+ tomato plants which are groaning with ripening fruit. My freezer is full and I would love to be able to can the tomatoes for indefinite storage. I know during World War II, a number of community canning facilities were around whereby people could take their surplus produce to them to be canned. They may have been run by the Womens Institute or some other voluntary body but I've no idea whether, or where this kind of facility is still available. Any ideas?

D&DD

In the US the LDS (church of the latterday saints/mormans) have canneries which the public can use it might be worth googling them in this country to see if they do it here too?