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What would you do with 30+ kg of fresh tomatoes, and counting?
So the garden plot has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations, and I can't give away enough tomatoes, tomatillos, and hot peppers.
I'm averse to the risks and expense of home canning, but otherwise open to suggestions. There's a wide variety of heirloom cherry (if you can get seeds for "Brad's Atomic Grape", they taste amazing), Roma, and beefsteak types.
Tomatillos are getting roasted and made into salsa verde for freezing.
I'm going to make freezer salsa rojo, but any other suggestions or favorite recipes are welcome. [I do have a dehydrator, but that seems like cheating.]
…all I can say is rethink home canning, because tomatoes picked at the height of the season (now) and canned taste sooo much better than regular canned tomatoes/sauce.
It’s easier than you think - you can buy 12 jars and lids for like $20, use any old pot to sanitize and boil the cans and go. There’s very little risk and expense, and it’s a lot easier than you might think.
Slow roast and freeze the cherry and Roma.
Roma and beefsteak can be tomato sauce, which can be frozen.
Depending on your climate you could dehydrate them.
If you have a local food bank, they may be overjoyed to have them.
That was amazing, and now I've got another must-watch YouTube channel. Looks like a couple of dinners taken care of. Thank you!
You might have more avenues to give away - nextdoor or a local Buy Nothing Facebook group. Friend suggests selling them out of your yard, truck, or at a flea market.
Tomato paste can be frozen in 1tbsp blobs.
Peppers are easy to pickle and you can fridge pickle them if you don't want to can, but canning is pretty easy, and makes a great gift that you can store for a long time.
Sun dried tomatoes in oil? I think you can even make a fascimile of this with an oven.
You don't need a pressure cooker to can tomatoes since they're acidic, btw.
Pasta sauce, pizza sauce, roasted in the oven, caprese salad, bruschetta, tomato soup, might be good in various dals but idk the marginal utility of using garden tomatoes, shirazi salad, fattoush, just salted with olive oil, or ketchup/bbq sauce.
Canned tomato soup is phenomenal, and can be pulled out of the cupboard at any time.
I'm checking into whether anyone has a passable frozen gazpacho recipe.
There are charities that will take your extra. Some even come to your property and harvest them for you (though you have to have enough to make it worth their while). Not sure where you’re located but I’m aware of the following:
Second Harvest
Ample Harvest
Food Froward
How about some dessert tomatoes?
That's awesome, the former pastry cook in me wants to make this even if it doesn't solve the abundance problem in any way.
I've been giving them away to neighbors and co-workers where possible, but it's been a good season for everyone locally. Food pantries won't take tomatoes any more.
I like the idea of slow-roasting. It's so hard to keep the fresh character and brightness of some of these heirlooms through cooking or dehydration - believe me, I've tried. It's been atrociously humid and the darn things won't dehydrate properly for storage, either.
The results were still better than store-bought, but my internal cost/benefit analysis on time spent cooking vs. time for other things didn't come up on the plus side for home canning.
Slow roasting and making my own tomato paste sounds like it might keep some of what makes the amazing flavor.
We just used about 3 kg to make pico de gallo for a big batch of burritos to go in the freezer. And I just harvested another 5 kg today, not counting the tomatillos. 🙄
Maybe look into some fermentation ideas?
Tomato sorbet!
Tomato puree freezes really well and is super easy to make! Slice your tomatoes, put them in a large pot, bring to a boil, simmer till they have released all their juices (15 minutes ish), cool, put through blender or food processor, strain out seeds and skins (sometimes I'm lazy and don't do this step - I don't care), and freeze in freezer bags or containers of choice. Sometimes I want to make a sauce instead and use this method with the added steps of putting the puree back into the pot after straining, adding spices, and simmering until I have the thickness I want. Of course you can always just use the frozen puree and do that bit later, but I like to have the sauce on hand so I can make quicker meals.
I make a lot of soups and stews in the winter, and love adding the tomato puree to them. The sauces I'll use for pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, and etc.
Oh and you can also make bbq sauce and freeze that too! It takes longer to make, uses more tomatoes, but is a treat to eat in the winter. Personally, I can't be bothered to make it, but my sister's is divine.