[Sir_Ed]

i’ve got dozens of tomatoes, how do you preserve them?

Canning? Drying?

Thanks,

Ed

[metmom]

I can mine.

I make sauce out of the sauce tomatoes and stewed tomatoes out of the beef steaks.

[Qiviut]

This is the method I use for canning tomatoes. It does NOT use a water bath, which greatly UN-complicates the process and you can do as few as one or many jars (pints or quarts). Linda has been doing this for 30 years with no problems - she does add lemon juice to the tomatoes to make sure she’s got enough of an acidic content. There’s another video where she actually tests the acid content with test strips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kmTH_q1usI

By the way, I boil my tomatoes for 20 - 30 minutes & keep them at a boil while filling the jars. I also wash my jars & then sterilize in the oven. I use a roasting pan (something with sides) to put my jars in when they go in the oven. I use jar ‘tongs’/jar lifters to take the jars out (they are HOT!). You pretty much need a wide-mouth funnel for filling the jars. Other than the lifters, funnel, jars & lids & a large enough pot to boil your tomatoes, that’s pretty much it for equipment.

ALSO - The Ball jars are marked on the boxes as to whether they can be used in the freezer or not. You can freeze your tomatoes in the jars, too. You can use the two-piece lid you would use for canning or you can buy plastic screw on lids for either regular mouth or wide-mouth jars. The screw on lids are not expensive and I love them. I do soup in pint jars and freeze it. I peel the tomatoes for canning and you can freeze them whole, halves, quarters or cut into pieces. BTW, I just dunk my tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or two, take them out (slotted spoon) and put them in a large bowl & let them cool to where I can handle them, then peel. I don’t use an ice bath and they peel just fine.

Here’s another blog post on freezing tomatoes in zip-loc type bags if you don’t want to mess with jars & only have a “few” tomatoes you’re dealing with:

http://www.southernmadesimple.com/how-to-freeze-fresh-tomatoes/

[SaveFerris]

Actually got no plan other than consuming which could get - interesting.

I need to learn how to can. Obviously it cannot be that difficult since our parents and grandparents were doing it all across the nation for a long, long time.

I mean I get it about the jars, heating and sealing - just haven’t actually DONE it. I may have to cut up some tomatoes, dice and freeze them, as imperfect as that may be. I can still use them in some things.