What is the best way to preserve my tomatoes?

Question

I have an abundance of tomatoes from my garden and would to to keep them over the winter. What is the best way to preserve them. Do I boil them and then take off the skins and then freeze them?

Answer 1

Yes, you can freeze them, or you can cann them in fruit jars, or you can dry them with a dehydrator.

For instructions on canning, freezing or drying, just google canning, freezing, or dehydrating foods. You will get millions of hits with millions of recipes.

Answer 2

wht a weird question

Answer 3

all the answers on canning and blanching and freezing are good.

If you are in a hurry - you can also throw a few whole tomatoes in the freezer - (wash them first).  Sometimes I prick the skin.  Put them in a baggies in case they burst.  You can then take the frozen tomatoes (which are like billiard balls) out of the freezer and just let them defrost in a dish, and use them like canned tomatoes.

Answer 4

If you've never home canned before, dehydrating or freezing is definitely the way to preserve tomatoes safely.

Be sure you first check the tomatoes for signs of decay, rot, or bug infestations. If they look fine, the tomatoes can be prepared for freezing. This is done dunking them in boiling water for 20 seconds, then slipping off the skin before placing in a freezer container.

What I do to save on freezer space is to sauce a big batch of tomatoes, along with onions, green peppers, and Italian seasonings. The veggies are cooked for about 4 hours, pureed, then ladled into freezer containers (available at grocery stores). During the winter, the tomato puree is added to soups or turned into homemade marinara sauce.

At the end of the growing season, you can pick any unripened tomatoes and wrap them individually in newspaper. Over the next 6 weeks, the tomatoes will slowly ripen.

Answer 5

If you have freezer space, your idea is great!  All you do is blanch them, remove the skins and trim out stem area and then package them up however you prefer(plastic bags or freezer containers) and put them in the freezer....couldn't be easier.  Vacuum packing is the best, but you need to freeze them in the bags first, then suck out the air.   If you don't have enough freezer space, canning is your other option...more equipment and time is involved here, but they last longer this way and don't use up your freezer space.

Answer 6

go to cooks.com it has canning and freezing ideals