Freezing Fresh Tomatos

[rbeau30]

The sauce from your home grown tomatoes will be heckuvalot more tasty than any thing on the shelf at the store IMHO.

Good Luck!

Learn how to can!

[TheGrey]

When Romas were on sale, I bought 100#, with an expectation of canning. I read that by freezing them, you can then thaw them later and they'll slip right out of the peel.
I used Ziploc gallon freezer bags, fit anywhere between 12-16 per bag, and stacked 'em deep in the chest freezer.

Here's what I discovered:

It does make them easier to peel. But core them before you freeze them, and it will be even easier.
Fully thawed previously-frozen tomatoes are squishy, slick, watery and some of the 'meat' tends to come off with the skin. I canned some like this and they look a bit like red brains in a jar after canning. They taste fine, but they're just not pretty. If you're planning on quartering them, or chopping them into pieces, wait until they are about half-thawed and strip away the skin. Only the skin will come off, and the tomato will hold its shape so you can dump the chunks into your pot or can.

If you're making tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce, freeze them, peel/core them, and toss them into an electric turkey roaster and let them cook down. Use an immersible blender, and measure out specific amounts into freezer bags. When placed on their side, you can stack the freezer bags in your freezer and they take up little room. They'll thaw quickly.