As the tomatoes produce on a daily basis, and I pick and pick and pick, how to deal with them in an efficient manner becomes the issue. Anything bruised, bugged or not quite “perfect” goes to the animals for their fruit-fest feast while I keep the majority for myself. After the sorting of good and bad tomatoes I still bring into the house about 40 pounds of fruit on average every other day. Yes…if I were in dire straights or needed more I would just cut out the imperfection of those thrown out, but some of our garden is grown specifically to supply our livestock with fresh eating too. A healthy animal supplies healthy food to me so it is in my best interest. Besides I still have plenty and so the problem becomes how do I handle these maters efficiently so that I can do all the day to day things besides just processing tomatoes? As we all know they aren’t going to sit around and stay in good shape for long. So dealing with them quickly and efficiently is required. I have a number of ways to do this though none of them is perfect. All have pros and cons and other readers out there may have tips too. So, if your new to canning and prepping tomatoes, or only have one way you deal with your fresh tomatoes read all the way through and see what ideas you can glean that you may not have heard of yet.
I always start with washing my tomatoes of course. Washing removes dirt, slime from tomatoes that may have rotted (or gotten bird eaten) next to the one I picked or even just bucket or hand dirt. I then proceed on with a number of ways all of which get me to my final destination of canning them.
My first way is to freeze them. I have a few tomatoes that are somewhat juicy, but so flavorful, that I like them for whole or chunks in my sauces. When I use them fresh for dinner it is easy to boil off the juices since I don’t use very many. In mass quantity though…it would take years (well maybe a bit less time) to finish boiling off the extra fluids. So these special guys get washed, cored right there at the sink, put into plastic freezer bags, and then put into the freezer. You can use something other than a freezer bag but I find them easy and reusable with a rinse. I can use the same group of bags throughout the whole season with only the occasional corner failure (isn’t that where they always leak first?!).
So…what does freezing do? Why it burst those little cell walls and in turn, during the thawing phase, releases the water in the tomato. The almost clear water collects in the bottom of the bag and voila…you can just dump it out. The tomatoes then easily release their skins. The skins will slip right off in your hand and with a squeeze to some of the more watery or seedy varieties they become nice little hunks of tomato meat to add to sauces. Now…this method will allow some seeds to go through. However it is also fairly compatible with most ways that people seed their tomatoes so this will work as a combo process. This is an effective method for removing unwanted water without wasting the energy (and time) to cook the sauce down. As I said, I prefer this to add tomato “meats” to my sauce and I don’t mind the few seeds that come with it since my sauce is seed free. I just add them to the sauce when it is ready, make sure it all comes back to a boil and then can and process according to directions.
One caveat to this method is that I grew a number of yellow varieties this year. More than usual. I find, and this is a very limited experience, that the yellows don’t release their skins quite so well as the red IF they are all the way thawed. They seemed to do better if I work on them while they are still partially frozen. I don’t know if this is the case across the board…but something to think about.
Lastly….thaw these guys on a towel or in a few bigger pans. For some reason…as all bags are prone to do they will leak a bit…both condensation and a bit of sticky tomato juice which can be a bit of a mess to clean up especially in addition to all the canning going on during that time.
Next we come to the Squeezo. An item very similar to a food mill but a bit pricier. There are also other brands, but mine is a Squeezo so that is just what I will call all of them here. I posted some pictures of it just in case you have never seen one or seen it used. I also have screens for the berries and pumpkins too, so I can use it for much more than just tomatoes. However…it works so well and easily on tomatoes that it is well worth the price just to process them if you do many many tomatoes. It is similar to the food mill as I mentioned, but is a bit more efficient and effective (to me anyway). I cut up my tomatoes into slightly smaller pieces, about half for a medium roma and quarters for one of the extra large romas. Then dump them in the hopper and start cranking. I do not use the piece of wood meant to push the food into the mill (can’t remember what those are called for some reason– sorry). Since this is a hand crank item—I can be careful not to pinch my fingers. I find my hand is much more effective in feeding the tomatoes in than the pusher thingy is.
I use a three pan set up as you can see. One to catch skins/seeds, one to catch juice/pulp and one pour off into. I pre-prep everything so once I get to the feeding part all I have to do is keep going.
Initially when you begin to use it it can seem “messy”. And, as I learned before buying it when reading what others have to say, I do get a small amount of dripping from the handle and occasional splashing/squirting. The handle issue is easily solved by putting a towel down on the floor in that area before starting. Also…if you juice lots of juicy juicy tomatoes…a certain amount of spitting does go on. Romas on the other hand don’t seem to do that. No one says in the reviews if what type of tomato they are processing so this is (again) just my experience.
Over all I like this item and would highly recommend it, though I can see that it might not be every ones favorite. Nor is it the cheapest depending on which brand you buy and if you want all metal versus those that are partially plastic. Lastly…I keep a good used toothbrush for helping to clean the screen(s). I start out with a stiff brush and then soap well and use the tooth brush to finish off with in the folds. At first it took me a while to clean the screens but I have perfected my technique and now it is quite quick. It’s just a matter of finding what works well for you.
BTW…this also does applesauce too. As I said…a multi tool. I do not like ground applesauce and prefer chunks so we don’t use this for our applesauce. However…if you like a smooth applesauce then it requires, just like the tomatoes, nothing more than cutting the apple into the size that will go through the feed. I am sure it would require more effort to turn the handle than tomatoes or berries but many people swear they love it for making sauce. Maybe someone will comment on that here.
Another method that I know of…but have not used… is the juice steamer. I have heard, though again have no experience in, that using a stainless steel juice steamer allows for you to get tomato juice for canning to drink, or cooking beans and grains with, and you are then left with a cooked down version of paste in the top. This paste then just needs to go through a Squeezo or food mill to remove seeds and skins. Sounds easy doesn’t it? And since I would eventually like to try this for carrots and a few other foods that I would like juice, I may eventually buy one. I am not sure if it would do large quantities in a timely manner though so….that is the one negative I might find with this method. As with the all metal Squeezo and other good quality food prep items (think the apple peeler that Lehmans sells) the steamers are expensive. However again, when reading reviews of them most all people swear by them so the money may be worth it. It can also be used for regular food prep too so it is a multi tool like the Squeezo. I am also leaving you with this site (Geopathfinder) to check out the steamer and also a good drying rack since we recently discussed drying our harvest.
Lastly..there is the boiling water bath for the tomatoes to help slip skins. I find that this is hot and irritatingly slow work and much much prefer the other ways I use to this. The steamer method also seems as if it would still be easier possibly. Hopefully I have given you a few hints and helps for peeling and prepping tomatoes. This years harvest of tomatoes may be a bit lean (commercially I mean) since the weather has been so cool and wet. Blight has struck many commercial fields and even the plants of home gardeners. So, if you have your own tomatoes try and put up a few cans, or freezer bags full, if you can. Even if you don’t cook down your juice you can add a can of paste to help thicken it up. Or just freeze, peel and squeeze a few into your dishes like I often do with my freezer batches.
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