Long Island Gardening Community Resource

Around the beginning of October, the tomatoes slow-ripen on the vine and stay there, nice and ripe, sitting waiting to be picked. They will sit there a good while (depending on the weather) until one day when I have some time to pick them and do something with them. Of course, if I leave them too long, they will grow bacteria or split open from rain.

I wanted to store them for future use and since I am not fortunate to have a pressure cooker, I decided to freeze them. I chose this method because I know I will be using them within a reasonable amount of time (1-4 months or so). So I looked up online what the proper way is to freeze them. So heres what I did the end of last week, Oct. 17th-18th or so:

Gather any glass jars and tops and sterilize with boiling water or ammonia. Boil Water in a large pot (1/4 - 1/2 way up with water). While bringing to boil, plug up your kitchen sink and turn the faucet to full cold. Fill up sink with cold water. We will be blanching the tomatoes in order to remove their skin. Add 4-6 tomatoes at a time into the boiling water and watch them. As soon as their skin splits open, use a slotted spoon to remove the tomato and toss it into the cold water bath.

After all tomatoes are removed, add the next 4-6 (make sure to keep the rolling boil going). Meawhile turn your attention to peeling the skin off the tomatoes. They should peel off very easily once the skin has split.

At this time, cut off any blemishes on the tomato and take off any remaining stem. Toss the finished tomato into a bowl. Keep this process going, draining the water and adding cold water as necessary to keep the water cold.

When your done peeling the tomatoes, stuff them into the jars as necessary and push them down as much as you can. Leave about an inch or a bit more to account for the spreading of the liquid as it turns to ice. I use a similar technique when storing my homemade vegetable stock. So that’s it. Pop the tops on, toss them into your storing freezer, and if you want, add some lemon to the top to stop any bacteria from building. When your ready, like in the middle of January, you will have beautiful ripened tomatoes, already peeled, to make sauce, salsa, add to soup, or whatever your favorite tomato recipe is.