My tomatoes are becoming ripe and I thought I would share with you one of the best ways to store all those ripe tomatoes. I am sure many many of you have gardens or containers of tomatoes around your home. I don't know many people who don't have at least 1 plant growing for a supply of fresh ripe tomatoes in the summer!
Many years ago when husby and I lived in a cabin in the middle of the Indiana woods.. we started our first garden together. It was huge.. and we had so many fresh fruits and veggies that we had to figure out what to do with it all. Of course, we gave many veggie baskets out to neighbors and friends but we also started freezing a lot of the fresh food to use during the winter. Most of that meant I had to blanch it first.. shock it in ice water and then freeze as flat as possible. Our plan worked that year and we ate on the garden all year long because of freezing.
This way of freezing tomatoes is easy.. No blanching needed.. Just wash your ripe tomatoes.. remove steams and dry each of them off individually.
Then depending on how many you are freezing, get a whatever size of ziplock you need and lay them out flat as possible. Make sure they are all in 1 layer.
Then get as much as air out of the bag as possible. ( sealing it up most of the way and using a straw works best. )
Lay them flat in the freezer and they are done!
These will work great for any recipe that calls for canned tomatoes. They are easier to chop or peel frozen but the texture does change a little.. so use for soups and pastas..etc. cooked recipes! A great way to thaw them is take one out of the ziplock.. hold it under warm running water and the skin will fall off.. Drop the tomato in the pot and it will cook and break apart! Its that easy! =)
K Jaggers
♥
