Photo by 1Bluecanoe. Flickr
During harvesting season I am always gathering up my vine ripened tomatoes, so I can get them ready to freeze for the winter. This method of preserving fresh tomatoes is much easier and less expensive than canning. If you have enough room in your freezer and enjoy making homemade sauce, then freezing tomatoes is the way to go.
The first thing you will need to do is, either harvest or purchase any variety of tomatoes from your garden or local farm stand. Wash them and pat them dry. You can either blanch them and peel their skins first, or freeze them with their skins on. I prefer the later. You will need to core the brown part off the top first. After you are done cutting out the top, squeeze the seeds out and place the tomato in a freezer bag. Continue to follow this procedure till the bag is full and ready to seal. I like to put a bunch of fresh basil in the bag before I seal it, so you don't have to worry about adding basil to your sauce later.
When you are ready to thaw a bag or two, you simply remove them from the freezer and defrost them. You can either use a microwave, or thaw them in a large bowl in your sink. You may have to drain the water that's accumulating in the bowl periodically while they are thawing. Once they are defrosted you can gather up all the ingredients you will need to prepare your favorite pasta sauce with. By freezing tomatoes, you can truly enjoy a garden fresh meal in the middle of January.
4 comments:
Hi Lydia,
unfortunately I do not have a big freezer, I have no space for freezed tomatoes.
But I like eating them fresh in summer every day. I find them delicious and healthy.
The photo looks good.
Olivia
Hello Lydia,
I sent you an email yesterday afternoon (Sunday). Did it reach you?
Olivia
Lydia,
Thankyou for posting my photo but it should also have my professional name attached to the image; 1bluecanoe.
Regards,
Ruthanne Annaloro
1bluecanoe
Hello Ruthanne, I really appreciate you letting others who are not experts in photography such as myself, use your beautiful work on our posts. I'm sorry that I do not have your name displayed under your photograph. For a while I was displaying everyone's names. I will go back to doing that again. For those of you who do not have there names displayed, I will go back to each photo that isn't mine and write your names and where it came from underneath the photos. I would also like to mention that if other people click on your photo they will be brought directly to your sight on flicker, so they that can view all of the other amazing photos that you and many others have taken. Thank you for coming to my blog and thanks for the advise.
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