Freeze Tomatoes for Fall and Winter

Freeze tomatoes

I’m really mad that no one ever told me you could freeze tomatoes. I know, I know. I should have asked someone, or researched it myself. For some reason it never occurred to me that they could be frozen for soups, stews and cooking. I thought the only way to preserve tomatoes was to can them and I wasn’t about to do that! Not after watching my husband do it last year.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated the finished product but the process was somewhat messy (think chain saw massacre in your kitchen). If you love canned tomatoes and want to do them that way then here is the link. Just make sure you have plenty of time for clean up!

This summer when the tomatoes started coming in I realized I needed to do something with them. They were lining up in my kitchen, begging me to save them from rotting because we couldn’t eat them all fast enough. Which is a good problem to have, right?

We have a blueberry farm and blueberries are just so easy to freeze. I looked at the tomatoes and wondered…..could I do the same thing with tomatoes? The answer was YES!

I got online and read about it and the process is very similar. After I finished smacking myself up side the head a few times for not looking it up sooner I got busy and went to work.

First, you wash them and pat them dry with a towel.

Then you cut the center or core out. Place them on a cookie sheet and stick them in your freezer. When they are good and frozen put them in a zip lock bag and you are done!

When you take them out for your fall and winter soups and stews just run water over them and the skin will peel off easily.

You can put them in boiling water for two minutes if you choose too (called blanching them) and the skins come off and then you freeze them. My theory is it’s less work to do the other way and they taste the same.

I know some of you have done this before and you are sitting there laughing your head off because I didn’t know it could be done this way. To you I say, next time tell me before my husband destroys my kitchen canning something!

Gotta go pick some more “maters” (as my granddaughter calls them) and get them in the freezer. See ya again real soon!