Freeze Tomatoes for Freshness Year-Round

There are several ways to freeze tomatoes which may depend on which way you wish to use them later on. Any type of tomato can be frozen. Even though you may use cherry tomatoes for salads, or Roma tomatoes for sauces, you can freeze either type and still retain the majority of the nutrients as if you had just picked the tomatoes. Tomatoes grown fresh from your garden are going to have much more nutrient value than any that you can buy in a grocery store.

The various types of tomato seeds that you can plant will yield varying amounts of fruits depending on the different plants. Vegetable seed catalogs offer regular and heirloom garden seeds and seed identification information for deciding on the best seeds for your garden plan. You may have Early Girl tomatoes that are ready and keep making fruit all summer, or you may have anther type of tomato that will be ready in the end of the season.

Once seeded, the plants need only your attention for proper watering and fertilizing. Protecting seeds when they have been planted with collars as well as adding egg shells to the soil is helpful to the seeds proper development. Minding a preventative pest control plan may be necessary if you have a very hot and humid climate in which you are growing tomatoes.

Methods for Freezing

The first thing to do when preparing the tomatoes for freezing is to clean them properly. If you would like to freeze them with the skin on, take the washed and dried tomatoes and place them on a tray. Remove the stem scar area. Place them in the freezer and allow them to freeze. Then, take them out, and package them either individually or into other containers. Seal them tightly. When you want to use the frozen tomatoes, take them out of the freezer one at a time or all at once.

If you want to peel them, run the tomato under hot water and the skin will fall away easily. Freezing the tomatoes without the skin on them requires that you dip the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute. Let the skin split and then peel the skin away. Freeze them the same way as you would freeze the tomatoes with a peel on them.

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