We are in the part of summer where an abundance of produce appears, either in your garden or farmer's market. I started paying attention to preserving the bounty from my then huge vegetable garden about 20 years ago. I got involved in canning for a few years, but I one year I asked myself, why? It is an effort. It's hot. I had always froze things like green beans and such, why not the rest of my bounty. So I started freezing whole tomatoes, roasting and then freezing tomatoes, making pesto, making basil cubes, all destined for the freezer. My produce now grows in four 200 gallon water tanks, tomatoes, eggplant, fennel. I also have accidental celery (it was in with the parsley) and multiple pots of herbs.
I shred zucchini, roast and freeze eggplant. Slice and freeze peppers. The zucchini and peppers are from Neighbor Bill, who was going to cut back but didn't. We also get cucumbers from him. And tomatoes. I can't remember the last time I bought a can of tomatoes.
Last week I brought one of my remaining bags of whole tomatoes up to thaw. I leave them in the refrigerator until thawed, then I pop the tomato out of the skin like a pit out of an olive. Voila! Tomatoes to become sauce. No making and then canning a sauce. I make it as I use it. Yes, I am brilliant.
Or......not.
24 comments:
That tomato sure looks good. I bet it taste even better.
I've never understood canning when freezing is a possibility. I had a big chest freezer back when I had a big vegetable garden. I rarely bought a vegetable.
About the only thing I freeze is sauce....usually about 50 bags because we have so many tomatoes. Won't do that many this year. You are much more ambitious than I am!
Well, I know that you were joking, but you are brilliant! Totally impressed with what you grow and what you freeze. Thanks for the Snoopy funny too. I leave smiling.
The first years we were married I used to can in my hot little kitchen with only a fan. A step up when we bought a house with a window air conditioner - it was still too hot. I canned for decades with a hot water bath canner - tomatoes, pickles and fruits. Then I graduated to my weighted pressure canner and even canned meats and low acid veggies like green beans.
Then one day (around 2000) I woke up and said - I am too old and summer is too hot. I freeze. Plus with only two people it is more than enough to just freeze. I freeze my tomatoes just like you do - thaw and pop them out of the skins and make my own spaghetti sauce. SO MUCH EASIER than canning, lol.
How smart you are! I have done a bit of canning, but I have never trusted it. I worry (unnecessarily) that there is some sort of toxin involved. Freezing everything makes sense!
You are brilliant, indeed, but I don’t get why people put themselves through this procedure. :)
Good for you! We used to can when I was a kid, so I was never tempted as an adult. Summers are too hot even without it.
I've done this with tomatoes too!
I am Snoopy today.
I do can and dehydrate some things, but I freeze a lot too. It's so easy and still so tasty. The tomatoes look amazing. My herb garden has outdone itself this year.
It made a really good sauce, Tommy.
Some people have a huge amount of produce and have to can and also enjoy it. I liked it for about a minute, Boud!
I doubt that. Lori. You are always doing something. 50 bags of sauce, OMG!
I am limited to what I can do and am fortunate to know Neighbor Bill. He brings me so much. As far as brilliant goes, I'm more like Snoopy. 😀
Freezing them whole is a remarkably easy thing to do, Miss Merry. I enjoy popping them out of the peel!I do like to roast and freeze, too.
I had that slight worry, too, Dreaming. With only two people freezing produce works well.
Canning is an excellent way to preserve food, but I don't need to do it, AC. For my limited amount freezer makes more sense.
My grandma was a canner, big time. I started doing it in the 2000s but stopped after 3-4 years, Cheerful. Hot and time consuming and time was something I had in short supply.
Alas, I am Snoopy most days, Val.
I do some dehydrating, Lori. My herbs are all potted but are doing well.
I have never canned anything and my mother never did, either. I do admire those who do it, but it isn't something everyone can do or have the time or means to do.
I am with you, make life easier, rather than harder. Our tomatoes are just starting to ripen. Like you I will probably pop them in the freezer, whole unpeeled to pull out at a later date!
Great food. Well done. I'm sending you warm regards from Croatia.
Growing up, my mother canned tomatoes for years from our backyard garden. I can recall dropping them in boiled water and then peeling off the skins and squeezing out the seeds, then came the bottling. Freezing would have been easier.
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