DIY : Freezing Tomatoes

After burning through a significant amount of our canned tomatoes, we started to worry again that we wouldn't get through the winter without running out. Not wanting to can another round without my mom's supervision, I decided to try freezing them. It was actually really easy, and if you are in Seattle, we found a 20lb box of #2 heirloom tomatoes for $25, which is a steal. I would highly recommend this to people short on time--what a great way to enjoy fresh, local and organic tomatoes throughout the winter without canning!

Step 1.

Buy your tomatoes! Now is a great time to find them at your local farmer's market on the cheap...be sure to ask if they have #2's!

Step 2.
Set up two pots. Boil one, put ice in the other.

Step 3.


Set up your work space for after the tomatoes come out of the water.

Step 4.


Once the water is boiling, drop the tomatoes in for 2 minutes. For larger tomatoes or heirlooms with quite a few rough patches on them, I'd leave them in for 4 minutes. You can tell they are ready to come out of the water when the skins crack or start to peel off.

 Step 5.


With a slotted spoon, transfer them into the pan with ice water. This makes the skins come off easier, and makes them easier to handle as well.

Step 6.


Put the iced tomatoes in a bowl, move them to your work space. For tough stems, I simply cut off the tops of the tomatoes and peel from there. Some stems will come right off. Cut off rough patches, and the rest of the skin should slip right off.

Step 7. 


After peeling, dice into large chunks, and transfer into freezer quality ziploc bags.


FREEZE! They will keep in your freezer for up to a year.

Tomatoes and apples and pears, OH MY!

Well, we are back from Israel, and let's just say the jet lag has been killing us. We fall asleep usually between 4pm and 7pm, and are up anywhere from 2am to 3:30am. I decided this was a great time to use my early-bird-ness to my advantage, and jumped in the car at 5am yesterday for a little road trip. My agenda? Tomatoes, beans and fruits from Eastern Washington.

First stop: Central Bean Company, Inc, in Quincy, Washington. I had researched and found they sell "Food Alliance Certified" beans on the cheap. The Food Alliance Certification ensures that farm and ranch standards are met, including safe and fair working conditions, no use of antibiotics, no genetically modified crops, reduced pesticide use, protection and enhancement of wildlife, and planting appropriately to protect erosion. While this level of certification demands a higher price tag, we still made out ok...

$15 - 25lbs of Red Beans
$15 - 25lbs of Great Norther Beans
$20 - 25lbs of Garbanzo Beans

After a tractor pulled around to bring my beans to my car, I loaded them in and headed west in search of tomatoes. I had pre-arranged with a local farmer for some, but I knew going in the 25lbs he had for me wouldn't be enough for my next canning adventure. So after swinging by his farm, I drove through Cashmere, where I found the motherlode of tomatoes.

The first stand gave me 20lbs for $20, all gorgeous, deep red Roma's. From there, they directed me to another stand, where I found them even cheaper--$.50 a pound!--and I took all he had left, in total, 30 pounds. They also had a lovely selection of fruits--$14 for a box of red pears and $8 for a box of crisp, delicious Gala Apples.





Here's a word to the wise...if you are looking for freezing, canning or drying, always ask to see their "Number 2's". These are generally the odd sizes, slightly banged up or on the verge of being too ripe to sell. They are cheaper and are great for these projects!

After driving 150 miles back over Steven's Pass this time, I arrived in Granite Falls where my AMAZING mom helped me can another 35 jars of tomatoes. Between the two of us, 7 jars at a time, we finished in about 5 hours, completely covered in tomato pulp and juice and the kitchen a disaster zone.





It was an exhausting day, but completely gratifying when looking at the jars of gorgeous red tomatoes lined up in a row. Today I've finally made it through the rest of the pears and apples, which I've frozen for pies and muffins in the coming months. And while I see we are spending more money now, I am starting to feel like this process will end up saving us money, not to mention keep us healthier all winter long.

Tomat-ohhhhhhhhhs

It's been three days since I started panicking, and I mean REALLY panicking, about our upcoming tomato situation.

Again, my lazy, grocery store mentality thought, OH, Tomatoes? I'll just pop down to the farmers market, pick some up, and can them. No problem! Until I was reminded that I'm in Washington, where tomatoes are not necessarily plentiful (at least on my side of the mountains), and are very expensive when you can find them.

My back up? I'll just drive to Eastern Washington, pick up a couple flats of tomatoes, and can them, right?

Well, not exactly. I'm traveling for 16 days over the next month, also throwing a baby shower, and lets not forget my daily drying ritual which is time consuming to say the least.

And let's not forget the cost! We are trying to prove that this can be done on a budget, but first we had to estimate how many tomatoes we use on a regular basis.

We use about 2-14.5 oz cans a week, on average, and more when we have guests. That's a little under a quart a week. 52 Weeks in a year, and there you go, we'll need 52 Quarts of tomatoes.

But wait!

How many tomatoes go into a quart of home-canned tomatoes? 3 Pounds.

At $2.50 a pound (cheapest we've seen, for canning purposes), that comes out to be....OUCH....

$7.50 a quart.

Now, let's compare that to Costco, where we can get a box of 8, 14.5oz diced, ORGANIC, tomatoes, for $7.

That's right around $2 a quart!

When you are faced with evidence like that, you have to ask yourself, 1) WHY am I doing this, and 2) what is the incentive to find, can, and store 52 quarts of tomatoes, when I can pop down to Costco and get some Organic ones for less than a third of the cost?

Well, as I'm sure you've heard, tomatoes are a hot-bed (sorry for the pun!) of controversy. Here are some fun facts:

* Tomatoes are often grown in Mexico, where they are cheap to produce and cheap to hire farmers.
* Tomatoes are sprayed to control weeds and insects, sprays that have been attributed to many health ailments
* Soil is fed NPK to boot yields, and usually, they are picked green in order to last longer and ship better (meaning less flavor and vitamins)
* Tomatoes are trucked to your grocery store, which burns fossil fuels and costs a lot of money for the fuel, energy, materials, transportation, etc., etc..

These are definitely not things I think about when I pick up a case of tomatoes.

I'm definitely trying to figure out where to get them, when to get them, and how to find them cheap, but if not, we might be without tomato sauce for a whole year.