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We have always blanched them in boiling water to remove the skins before freezing. They will be mushy when defrosted but are great for sauces and soups.
Originally Posted by Brian
Yes, blanching and freezing tomatoes works great for stir fry dishes, too. We've been putting up garden tomatoes and roasting chilies big time for the past three weeks. Also have been canning catsup and roasted pepper sauce. With the warm weather the tomatoes and peppers are still producing. For cherry tomatoes and sweet-100's, I leave the skin on, slice them in half and freeze them on cookie sheets, then bag them for use later.
I'm picking apples and grapes now, too. (Yesterday, two truck loads of apples went to feed orphaned bear cubs at a rehab facility near Rifle). Making lots of stuff with apples including wines. The Riesling and Gewurztraminer grapes have gone to make jelly, and for wines that are almost finished fermenting.... I'm racking from fermenter barrels into carboys today. The reds get picked Wednesday. And, the last of the peaches just went to making a gallon jug of peach cordial.
Mrs. Hummer has been making hearty soups and freezing in vacuum bags for me to take hunting. Just heat and eat, very easy, and great meals. It's harvest time and we're like the busy beavers prepping for winter.
In the photo, I'm pressing 212 lbs. of Gewurztraminer grapes which yielded 16 gal. of juice using an 80 liter Zambelli hydro press. Also have 115 gal. of Riesling. Both are fermenting with three different yeasts to produce wines of different characters.
That is what I do Brian before I can them for sauce.
I freeze them whole,
When it is time to make sauce, thaw them.
Run them through my peeler/seeder twice.
Simmer the juice down by half.
That should be a good start to your soup. It sure does smell and taste great with homemade maters!
What does a tomato peeler / seeder look like? Have a link? Is it the same thing as the kitchenaid attachment I use to turn apples into applesauce?
I asked good ol' mom today as well how she froze tomatoes. She said she's done both - frozen them with the skin on, removing it when they were thawed, or removed them in advance and frozen the insides only. Then she gave me how she'd always always go to the trouble to mix up the tomatoes with other stuff (onions, whatever) in almost all cases so that she had a good base to start with. Moms are cool.Glad mine's still around to offer advice on things I took for granted back when I was younger.
FFL 07/02
Feedback: https://www.ar-15.co/threads/106039-Brian
Wow, I'm jealous. Definitely going to have to try to find a way to stop by on the way to Moab next Easter.Yes, blanching and freezing tomatoes works great for stir fry dishes, too. We've been putting up garden tomatoes and roasting chilies big time for the past three weeks. Also have been canning catsup and roasted pepper sauce. With the warm weather the tomatoes and peppers are still producing. For cherry tomatoes and sweet-100's, I leave the skin on, slice them in half and freeze them on cookie sheets, then bag them for use later.
I'm picking apples and grapes now, too. (Yesterday, two truck loads of apples went to feed orphaned bear cubs at a rehab facility near Rifle). Making lots of stuff with apples including wines. The Riesling and Gewurztraminer grapes have gone to make jelly, and for wines that are almost finished fermenting.... I'm racking from fermenter barrels into carboys today. The reds get picked Wednesday. And, the last of the peaches just went to making a gallon jug of peach cordial.
Mrs. Hummer has been making hearty soups and freezing in vacuum bags for me to take hunting. Just heat and eat, very easy, and great meals. It's harvest time and we're like the busy beavers prepping for winter.
In the photo, I'm pressing 212 lbs. of Gewurztraminer grapes which yielded 16 gal. of juice using an 80 liter Zambelli hydro press. Also have 115 gal. of Riesling. Both are fermenting with three different yeasts to produce wines of different characters.
There's no way I'd be able to grow my own grapes over here, but I'd love to be making some hard cider out of homemade apples. Had a buddy who said he thought he knew someone who'd let us come pick and press a ton, but I guess it didn't work out, since I never heard back.
FFL 07/02
Feedback: https://www.ar-15.co/threads/106039-Brian
That would be great, and you might get lucky because I try to do bottling in April and May. There is a cider plant nearby where I can buy unpasteurized apple juice by the barrel, and it's easier than using my own apple mill and press. A few years ago I made apple wines from a 55 gal. barrel of juice. This evening we opened one of the last bottles of 2009 Cranberry Apple wine. Still very good....
I'm not growing wine grapes now but I source them from several western Colorado vineyards, some free for the picking, some in trade for the wine I make, and some I buy. I'll get about 1000 lbs. of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc this week. 2015 should be a great year for wine in CO, maybe as good as 2012.
I have this one. http://www.williams-sonoma.com/produ...-tomato-press/
It is a little messy, and if you run grape tomatoes or something in it with thinner skins they sometimes get a little clogged. But it does a great job of getting the seeds out and it isn't a hundred dollars. I have used it for 3 years now and we have lots and lots of tomatoes every year.
I have decided that I am going to have to start pruning my grapes, they are getting unmanageable. Do you have any tricks or best practices you can share? The ones I have I don't know what variety (some sort of purple wine grape I think. They have firm skins and while they taste great they really are not for snacking.) They make awesome Jelly!
Last edited by rbeau30; 10-06-2015 at 08:48.
Grape growers tend to prune several times through the season. There are so many variables depending on the type of grape, the weather, growth and other conditions that may change from year to year and month to month. But, pruning yearly is necessary for vine health and crop. Check out the various extension service papers via google on pruning grapes where you can learn a lot more than I can offer.
I'll soon be picking grapes in a vineyard that's been neglected for 5 years. Only about 20% of the vines are still alive and only about 20% of those have fruit this year. The lack of pruning prevents light from evenly ripening the grapes, the sugars aren't high enough in the shaded fruit so only some of it will be usable for anything but feeding the birds.
Retry a few posts down.
Last edited by Irving; 11-26-2015 at 18:47.
"There are no finger prints under water."
Cant see any of your pics irving... You have to post a link to the actual pic, not the page containing the pic.
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