Checking in on your tomatoes!

[Marian Worley]

Very soon we will begin the summer harvesting of tomatoes and I cannot wait. Wilth the cool wet summer in the south the tomatoes took a while to make, and I have experienced a bit of blossom drop and lack of blossoms, but the tips I have received, calcium, fish emulsions, have helped and I have a nice crop coming. How are yours coming?

[Michelle W. Flannery]

I've got hundreds of cherry tomatoes on my kitchen table. And a dozen or more larger tomatoes. They're all coming in now regularly, by the bucket-full. I'm drying the cherry tomatoes and putting them in a jar of olive oil. I've also dried some of the larger tomatoes and baggy stored them. We're eating tomatoes with every meal, and snacking on the cherries throughout the day. Also giving many away. Time to put some in the freezer though! The excitement of harvesting my own tomatoes has faded a bit, and my taste buds have become a little tomato saturated at this point, but I'm still loving them, and I'm not so far past the tomatoe-less days of this past year, that I can't still appreciate their abundant availability now, especially when I know the tomatoe-less days of fall and winter are right around the corner!

[Marian Worley]

I like this, how do you dry them? I use a food dehydrator for smaller tomatoes and then put them in olive oil with a little salt and a dash of balsamic just to raise the acidity and then can them in a hot warter bath. They are good for at least a year(still have some form 08) in the pantry.

[Michelle W. Flannery]

Marian, I just dry the cherry tomatoes in my dehydrator, then drop them in the olive oil. I don't process them all all. In fact, I added this year's dried toms to last year's, in the same jar of olive oil. The oil is the preservative, so I didn't see a problem. I didn't add anything to the oil, but the salt and balsamic sounds really good. I think I'll do a new batch that way. I have also dried a few larger tomatoes this year. So far I'm just bagging them dry. Not sure I want to put them in oil, since I'm not sure how to include oiled tomatoes in recipes later. How are you using your oil-preserved dried tomatoes? That's where I come up short - having a way to use them in recipes later. Would love some ideas.

[Kate E]

I like them in veggie pasta dishes-drain the oil (it's great for sauteing onions, garlic, etc) cut them into bite sized pieces and saute with anything-squash, beans, greens, onions-whatever you have. Yummy!

[Adrian Fox]

The tomato 'glut' is starting. I'm looking at 25 large tomatoes sitting on the table in front of me, and we've already eaten a huge number with lunch and last night's supper. Great! BUT, does anyone have a quick method for preserving toms for winter use? Freezing produces a horrible pulp, mostly tasteless; bottling a tomato sauce works well but takes ages to do. What do others do to ensure a supply of tomatoes in the winter?

[Marian Worley]

Well I can all my tomato products for the year and there are several ways to do that but the easiest for me is to simply can them whole. Here is what I do.
I place a colander over a bowl. Then I start a big pot of water to boil. Dip the batch of tomaotes whole into the water and let blanch about a minute or two. Drain and let the tomatoes cool so you can handle them. The peels slide off. Core them and then run your fingers through them over the colander and squeeze the juice and seeds out. You will not get all the seeds out. Put the pulp into a large pot. When all are processed, heat to a boil and add salt, you decide how much. The juce that collects in the bowl at the bottom of the colander can be canned as well. Press all the juice out of the discarded skin and seeds into the bowl through the colander. Pour the juice into a pot and heat it with a little salt. The salt is meant to preserve, not so much to flavor.
Meanwile, boil and streilize your jars OR run them in your dishwasher on the sani cycle and time it for them to be done when you finish the processing. Fill the hot jars with the tomatoes, wipe the rim and place the top and screw band on. Place the jars in a large pot of boiling water and boil for about 5 minutes.( You need tongs for this) Do the same with the juice. Pull jars out of the water, keep up right and let them cool. The tops should pop if sealed. It may sound a little difficult, but once youy get your equipment sorted out, it goes by fast. Then you are good to go for a year. If they last that long.
I suggest you start with small batches, say about 15 tomatoes and about 3 - 4 jars. Once you feel confident, you can do larger ones. But I have been at it for 30 years and I always do small batches. You can e mail me if you have any questions or want a virtual canning buddy.

[Michelle W. Flannery]

Marian, I'm very interested in this. I thought tomatoes had to be processed in a pressure canner (which I don't own), but you're suggesting just cook them and process in a hot water bath as being good enough. Is that right? If this is so, I'm canning my own tomatoes this year!!! And the juice ... are you saving that as "tomato juice" for drinking or for some other use?

[Marian Worley]

The good thing about setting up a system where you can capture the juice is that you do have a pure tomato juice which you can use for anything. Soups, drinking as juice, or anycooking. Plus you get the seeds, and then can compost the rest. You use %100 per cent of the tomato. I have a cutting board that fits over my sink and it has a mesh strainer basket built in. Got it at Costco. I bet you can find one there or at target. The basket is where I squeeze the juice and remove the seeds. The pulp stays there and drains into a metal bowl below. Then toss the whole meaty tomato into a pot to cook a bit. If I want to make a salsa, chutney, or sauce, the cutting board is right there. I can about 3 - 6 jars at a time. Thanks for the tip on drying tomatoes. I

[Adrian Fox]

Marian, thanks very much for the information on canning or bottling tomatoes. Your method certainly sounds simpler than the one I used last year which involved making tomato sauce and lots of boiling down with other ingredients. Will certainly be bottling them this year.

[Marian Worley]

Hi Michelle and Adrian,
yes, you can just heat up the tomato product you wish to make and then place in hot jars and then process in a water bath. I have canned for many years and do not own a pressure canner. The real trick to canning is to keep the lid clean before sealing and to not overfill the jars. There needs to be some room at the top. Every once in a while a jar will not seal properly and I do watch for that, but you can always tell if there is an issue. Adrian, I make sauce and other tomato products, and as you get the hang of it you can too. There is no need for a recipe, just lightly sautee, using very little oil, the ingredients you like, onion, garlic, zucchini, etc. and thn add the tomatoes using the same method I described. Cook as long as you want, then can. Again, small batches is the key. I do avoid adding mushrooms to anything I can. They can be added later.

[Judy Williams]

Hi, thanks for the canning method. I have one question: how much boiling water is needed to put the jars in to seal? Like half way up the jar ?
Thanks again. If I have enough, I'm going to try this!!
Judy in Indianapolis

[Marian Worley]

I like to just cover the tops of the jars. If you do nort have a pot deep enough, cover as much as you can and use a ladle to scoop and pour hot water over the jars as they boil for about 3 minutes. But covering is best. My sister did some canning and had trouble with her jars"floating". You need to heat the pulp a bit before putting into jars and fill them full as they cook down when in the water bath. If they do float, weigh them down with whatever works. The trick is to build up some heat in the jar. Ansd try not to tilt them until they are sealed. Let me know how it goes.