Preserving Tomatoes: Freezing

Every summer I can an obscene amount of crushed tomatoes.  I make deals with farmers for the tomatoes that are too ugly to sell, harvest flats of them from my plants and keep some out from my CSA share.  As tomato season progresses I begin to panic, fearing that I will never preserve enough to last until the following summer.  Until one day I look at the jars lined up in the basement and I decide I can stop.  Then, as long as I have made enough salsa, and tomato orange marmalade, I freeze the rest.  In addition I freeze any smaller tomatoes throughout the season, because I learned the hard way, canning small tomatoes is time consuming, overly fiddly, and frustrating.

I know many folks who prefer the ease of freezing tomatoes and preserve all of their harvest without canning.  For the bulk of my tomatoes I prefer to spend more time on them in the summer months so I can use them more easily in the winter.  With a quart of crushed tomatoes I can make pasta sauce, soup, or chili easily enough that I think of them as convenience food.  In addition, if the power goes out, or my freezer dies, I won't lose my entire tomato stash.

However frozen tomatoes do have a purpose that goes beyond preserving the tomatoes I can't or don't want to can.  I will admit their primary use is running out of tomatoes too early insurance.  However they are also perfect for recipes that call for just a few tomatoes.  Many times I use part of a quart of tomatoes assuring myself that I will find a use for them in the next few days.  However many times the jar gets lost in the back of my fridge until it resurfaces in scary new colors.  Instead of using a partial quart I take a few tomatoes out of the freezer, rub the skins under running water to remove the skins, cut out the core and proceed with my recipe.  For a small number of tomatoes you can even do this without getting frostbite.

Frozen Tomatoes
I hope it doesn't insult any ones intelligence to write this in recipe format.  I just know some folks skip the blog chatter and scroll down to the recipe.

Tomatoes, local vine ripened flavorful ones
Zip top bags or Pyrex dishes with lids or plastic storage containers

Place the tomatoes in the bags or containers and close.  Place in the freezer.  To use just remove the tomatoes from the storage container or bag, reseal, and return the remaining tomatoes to the fridge.  Rub the tomato under running water while rubbing the skin.  The skin will rub right off.  Cut the core out with a knife.

Support Tomato Workers Fight for a Fair Wage No Farm Workers No Food

Photo by Scott Robertson

Courtesy of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

When walking around the produce section of the grocery store many factors influence what items you buy.  Do I want conventional or organic produce? What look most appealing? What meals will I prepare? What is in season and what can I afford?  However most of the time a typical shopper does not think of the people responsible for growing and harvesting their food. As consumers we know little about the the farm workers and their work conditions.  Here in Burlington I can often choose which vegetable I want to buy based on the local farm it came from and who I want to support.  This past fall I based some of my choices on supporting farms who lost produce to flooding, Digger's Mirth, or just my neighbor who co-owns Arethusa.  More often then not the produce may just say the state is was grown in.

Photo Courtesy of Hilary Martin
Farmer Digger's Mirth Collective

In Immokalee, Florida, where most domestic tomatoes are grown, for some workers the conditions are a modern form of slavery.  For those who are lucky enough to have their freedom they spend 10 hours a day picking tomatoes with no benefits, sick leave or overtime for $5 an hour.  Today for every 32 pound bucket of tomatoes laborers receive between 45 and 50 cents, the same amount paid since 1978.  In an effort to change this the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) have reached a historic agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange. Under the terms of this agreement the farm workers will have better working conditions and will receive a penny a pound pay increase.  However the agreement is contingent on the companies who buy the tomatoes agreeing to the price increase.

For the consumer a penny more a pound does not mean much, for example in one batch of my Tomato Orange Marmalade it would mean 3 cents more.  That is 1/2 a cent more per half pint jar.  However for the men and women who pick those tomatoes it would mean earning $8 an hour instead of $5 an hour.  It would still mean long days of back breaking work, however at least they would be earning minimum wage.  Currently Taco Bell, McDonald's, Burger King, Bon Appetite Management, Compass, Aramark and Sodexo (who provides food service to UVM and many other schools)  have all agreed to the increase.  The only supermarket chain that has agreed is Whole Foods.

Photo Courtesy of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

There have been rallies, marches and petitions to bring the message to the supermarkets, do the right thing, fair pay for hard work.  In response the supermarkets are still saying no, no to treating the workers with dignity, no to valuing the food they place on our plates.  If you want to help the first step is not buying tomatoes grown in Florida (unless you shop at Whole Foods).  However that is not enough, corporations are still pretending they are not at fault.  Suzi Robinson, speaking as a representative for Stop and Shop, told a Boston Globe reporter, "the company should not dictate worker compensation to their suppliers."  Even though the agreement already reached means agreeing to a price increase, not interfering to wage negotiations.

When the CIW tried to give a letter of hope for fair food and fair wages to a manager at a New York City Trader Joe's he refused.  It may be trendy, with smiles from the employees and Hawaiian shirts but it appears this corporate food chain also refuses to sell food with dignity.  He did not even agree to take the letter, demanding that they leave.  I feel the attitudes the CIW has encountered means signing a petition is not enough to show our support.  Boycotting Florida tomatoes alone is not enough.  We all need to do something to stick our neck out a little, something that shows the supermarket chains we care enough to actually step up and make our voice heard.

Photo Courtesy of Hilary Martin
Farmer Digger's Mirth Collective

Walk in to your local supermarket, as many supermarkets as there are in your area, walk up to the customer service desk and tell them you will not purchase tomatoes from them unless they agree to the contract with CIW.  For the first few customers to do this it won't really be noticed.  This movement needs numbers for its impact to be felt.  So after you tell your supermarket how you feel, tweet about it, blog about it, e-mail a link to your friends, and tell everyone on Facebook what you did in your status.  [I stand with the tomato workers!  I will not eat a Florida Tomato until they receive fair pay.  My supermarket now knows!  http://bit.ly/fIv3bX ]  This time your support means more then just voting with your fork and choosing food carefully.  You also need to tell the grocery stores what you believe in and what they need to do.

If you want more information you can visit the website of the Coalition for Immokalee Workers (CIW),  read about their rally for fair wages in Boston at Stop and Shop, as well as the tomato slavery that often exists on farms in Florida.  Donate via paypal to the CIW  or mail a check to (a check means that they will not have to pay a percentage to paypal)

Coalition of Immokalee Workers
P.O. Box 603
Immokalee, FL 34143

Tomato Orange Marmalade

My addiction to canning began 7 years ago with this recipe, all that I love about canning is present in tomato orange marmalade.  It is a product that is inaccessible if you do not make it yourself, one that looks beautiful cooling on your counters for weeks longer then necessary, an enjoyable almost meditative cooking process and of course a flavor that is well worth all the time you invest in it.  The flavor is one that provides a bright sweet flavor to a long winter of stored root vegetables.  I was recently asked what compelled me to make this recipe when I first saw, tomato is not well known as a sweet preserve and many would not even try it.  Honestly I do not remember, it may have been my love of tomatoes, or the way I was imagining it would taste in my head or just an adventurous streak.  Although we should remember that tomatoes are a fruit, so really it should be less of a mental leap then making a tasty dessert with rhubarb, which is a vegetable.

I ended up making Tomato Orange Marmalade in my No Added Pectin Jam Making Workshop last Saturday and I think it is safe to say it surprised all the participants.  Everyone immediately fell in love with it.  One attendee said, "This is my new favorite thing."  A sentiment I fully understand as it is a spread that is just the right side of sweet to be perfect spread on toast or filling a French crepe, but would also be happy paired with chevre.  The tomatoes serve to balance the citrus and temper the bitterness that is usually so prevalent in marmalade.  In the end I think everyone was happy that I called it in to pinch hit for the seedless raspberry jam I originally had planned.

Raspberry jam seemed perfect to teach now as the season was just beginning, giving the participants plenty of time to make it on their own before the season was over.  However I failed to think through the nature of farming and availability.  I was happily remembering picking fall raspberries in the height of the season, when you can take less then thirty minutes to fill a flat with berries.  However this is the start of the fall raspberry season and the picking is frustrating at best.  So in the end I had enough local raspberries to make a batch in my workshop but not enough to swap in and out various steps like a Food Network Star.

In case I have not sufficiently piqued your interest to try this marmalade recipe perhaps my eight year old's undying love for it can persuade you.  This has been Sebastian's favorite since he was 3, the year I ran out mid winter and unable to imagine his diet without it found out a quart jar of home canned crushed tomatoes would work in the recipe.  Every time Sebastian introduces someone to it and they fall in love it makes his day.  He loves knowing that other people have discovered one of his favorite culinary joys.  If you do try this please let me know in the comments, I know he will love to read them.

Tomato Orange Marmalade
Adapted from Gourmet 2003

It is important that you use the best quality tomatoes you can for this recipe.  You can use any color of tomato you want, a mix is especially striking.  Don't use paste tomatoes as they do not have enough liquid in them.  If need be in winter you can make a batch using 1 quart jar of home canned crushed tomatoes.  However supermarket tomato look alikes will not work.  A friend tried that once and when I asked how it was she replied, "Well... I ate it."  Which meant no one else would.



3 pounds peeled, cored and chopped ripe heirloom tomatoes, including juices (the weight is after peeling, coring and chopping, including the weight of any juices)
3 cups sugar
2 organic juice oranges, washed
1 organic lemon, washed
1/8 tsp salt

Place peeled, chopped tomatoes and their juices in a 5 to 6 qt or larger, wide pot, (the ingredients will all fit in a smaller pot but you need to leave space so they will not bubble over, ideally it should be at least 9 1/2 inches wide to encourage rapid evaporation).  Slice oranges and lemons as thinly as possible, including peel and pith.  I slice mine on my mandolin using the thinest insert and then remove all the seeds and slice the rounds into 4 pieces (and the pieces that are only peel I julienne, you can also quarter the fruit and then slice it as thinly as possible with a knife.

Place the lemon and orange slices in the pan with the tomatoes, checking again for any citrus pits you missed, in the pot with the tomato.  Add the sugar and salt and place over moderate heat while stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.  Turn the heat to high and continue to cook until the setting point is reached.*

Using a canning funnel ladle hot marmalade into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Run a bubble wand or small knife around the inside of the jar to remove air bubbles.  Use a damp paper towel to clean the surface of the rims, place a clean lid on top, add the rings and tighten as tightly as you can with your hands.  Place the filled jars in a water bath canner and process for 10 minutes.  After the 10 minutes is up remove the lid, turn off the heat and leave to rest for 5 minutes before removing the jars to cool on a towel or receiving blanket.

*How to test the setting point of jam:
This recipe is a great one to learn how to make preserves without added pectin as it gives you a visual cue when to begin testing.  At first the ingredients all look like separate items, tomatoes, juice and citrus slices.  I never begin to test this recipe until the ingredients take on a cohesive look, like they are all one product and most of the liquid is evaporated.  When making jam do not expect it to look like jam when it is still hot, hot jam is still a liquid unless you have moved beyond the gel stage and gotten to the cement stage.

Once it begins to look cohesive begin testing, for this recipe I rely almost exclusively on the cold plate test.  I place 2 saucers in the freezer and when I want to test the set I place a dollop on the plate, remove the marmalade from the heat, and place the plate in the fridge.  After a few minutes check the plate, the marmalade should remain in a mound that does not run if it is done, if you run your finger through it it should leave a line.  If you want a firmer set it should wrinkle before your finger if you push the mound, I personally prefer a softer set then that with this one.

If you do not trust your set testing abilities do the cold plate test and when you think it is set take the pot off the heat, place it in the fridge and test the set the next morning.  If it is set heat it back up to boiling before ladling into hot jars and canning (the product must be hot to safely can it).

Wild Rice Tabouli Salad (Gluten Free)

This dish came about because of my children, not because it is one of those dishes I knew they would love.  Quite the opposite, I made this dish fully aware that it will be several years before either of my boys decides to eat this.  However thanks to them and their pickiness I had 2 cups of leftover rice in the fridge.  I committed the cardinal parenting sin of preparing a new type of rice, which both boys immediately refused to eat.  I wasn't worried about it, they made do with the other options for dinner as Lewis and I happily ate the volcano rice, enjoying the different grains each with its own taste and texture.  For the record, the second time I made the rice they liked it, which was faster then I was expecting.


The idea to use the leftovers in Tabouli salad came when I was picking herbs at my CSA on one of the many oppressively humid, hot days this summer that has been making everyone cranky and squinty.  The herb field has zero shade and the curly parsley was the first parsley I came to.  Standing in the parsley patch I quickly decided to make tabouli for dinner, as a sudden tasty sounding way to excuse picking curly when I usually prefer flat leaf.  Now it wasn't laziness, it was a meal plan.


Once I decided not to use the traditional bulgur wheat base (or the boxed mix my mother relied on) I decided to play a little by adding toasted hazelnuts. The resulting salad was light, flavorful and delicious, enough so that I made it again 3 days later, even though I no longer had any tomatoes.  The second time around I gave the leftovers to one of my neighbors, who requested the recipe when he returned my dish.  Then told me to start typing when I told him I planned to post it here.

Wild Rice Tabouli Salad (or should that be Tabbouleh?)


Most of the vegetables are listed as optional because I don't want you to put off making it because you are missing some of the vegetables listed.  Just chop and add in whatever vegetables you have so there is more texture and flavors in the salad


2 cups cooked rice, preferably a wild rice blend or other whole grain rice (I used volcano rice)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (if you put  your lemons in the microwave on high for 50 seconds first you will get more juice)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt or kosher salt (if your rice is not already salted increase salt to 1 tsp)
1/2 cup finely chopped curly parsley (it is really important to finely chop the parsley)
2 - 3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes (optional)
1 cucumber peeled, cut lengthwise into 4 pieces and then seeds removed, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup hazelnuts briefly toasted in a dry skillet until fragrant and then coarsely chopped
1 red, yellow or orange pepper seeded and chopped (optional)
1/2 cup chopped scallions or baby onions chopped fine
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)




Mix all the ingredients and stir well.  Top with feta if using. Either serve immediately or allow the flavors to mellow and blend in the fridge for half an hour first.

Peeling Tomatoes Tutorial

Tomatoes are one of the foods I cannot imagine living without, a feeling I shared with my mother. My mother died over 27 years ago but when I watch one of my boys enjoy a tomato I recognize her genes coming through. Julian has always loved tomatoes, when he was a toddler I would carry him in a hip carrier when we picked up our farm share and I always gave him a tomato to eat. The seeds all over my shirt always made me laugh and remember my mother. Sebastian is just discovering his love for fresh tomatoes this summer.

During the second world war my mother worked picking tomatoes on a farm. She told me when they found a fully ripe one they were supposed to eat them. Within a week she was the only person who still liked tomatoes. As she was picking she would hear, "Roz, over here," and she would be tossed another ripe tomato to eat. We used to eat them together and daydream that maybe I would get to do that one day...

With all her love of tomatoes the most my mother did with them was to cut them up for salads. Every time she did she always took a taste, ostensibly to make sure the tomato was good enough to serve. So my mother would never have made Tomato Basil Butter, or peeled one. Even so I didn't think to post the steps to peeling tomatoes in last weeks recipe, until a friend asked me how to do it. So here are step by step instructions on peeling tomatoes (the same steps can be used to peel peaches).

Peeling Tomatoes Step By Step

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Wash the tomatoes, remove the stem and cut a shallow X on the bottom of each tomato with a knife (I use a serrated knife)



Drop the scored tomatoes into the pot of boiling water and boil for 30 seconds to loosen the skins




Once the skin has loosened remove the tomateos from the boiling water with a slotted spoon or mesh sieve, if you want you can drop them in cold water before placing on a cutting board. When peeling them for canning I don't bother with the cold water bath, if I want to stop the cooking I do use the water bath. See below how the tomatoes skin has moved back from the X cut into the bottom

Once the tomato has cooled enough to handle you can slip the loosened skin off of the tomato.

Remove and discard the peels.

Tomato Basil Butter: Summer Taste Year Round

This is the third summer I have grown tomato plants in front of my house. It began by accident one year when my husband and I pulled up the Yew bushes the house came with. We were planting perennial flowers from a friends garden when our neighbor said the space really needed tomatoes, and it just so happens he had 4 starts that he did not know what to do with. Well the tomato plants were so productive in the front of my house that I quickly decided to do it every year. Last year we were able to eat tomatoes year round from those plants. This year my plants are bigger then ever, more like trees then bushes. They are impressive enough that people have stopped their cars to ask me for advice on growing tomatoes. The only thing I can tell them is compost, Gardener's Supply Tomato Fertilizer, and Southern exposure.

I have been fearful of late tomato blight all summer but still optimistic, until this weekend. On Sunday another neighbor warned me that his tomatoes had late tomato blight. The very next day I went to pick tomatoes and found signs of blight. So I had to decide, what is the most important item to make with my tomatoes for the winter. What would leave the largest culinary hole if it was missing?

While I can crushed tomatoes and tomatoes in their own juice for year round consumption, that is less about the flavor impact of using home grown tomatoes and more about using local food as much as I can. However every year I make at least a quadruple batch of Tomato Basil Butter using a recipe by Ruthanna at Garden Web's cooking forum and recipe exchange. Tomato basil butter is a year round staple in my kitchen that can produce gourmet meals easily and quickly. Most often I use this butter when preparing fish. I have however been known to put some on top of rice or vegetables. I am sure that you could prepare tofu or chicken in a similar way to the fish and have wonderful results.

The balance of flavors in this butter is wonderful, the lemon provides a high flavor note while there is the familiar sweetness of the tomatoes, the bite of the garlic and the earthy sweet flavor of the fresh basil. Of course the butter does not hurt either...

Ruthanna's Tomato Basil Butter

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 1/2 cups peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes (about 1 lb. if you must you can substitute canned tomatoes but do not use supermarket fresh tomatoes. Vine ripened summer tomatoes are really the best choice)

2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup unsalted butter softened

2 tsp grated lemon zest (I always take the lemon after, squeeze it into a small plastic container and freeze it for the next time I have a recipe that calls for the juice of 1 lemon without the zest)

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup minced fresh basil

Heat the oil in a small skillet (when making a double batch I use my large non stick saute pan). Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook over medium to high heat, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes form a puree that will mound, about 10 minutes. Let cool before putting the softened butter in a bowl and then adding the tomato puree and all the remaining ingredients. Place the butter on to a sheet of wax paper or parchment and roll into a log. Wrap the log in aluminum foil and refrigerate or freeze (personally I always freeze it, I have been able to store it in the freezer for 1 year or even longer).

Fish with Tomato Basil Butter

4 fish fillets, or 1 for each person (works with salmon, flounder, tilapia, bluefish...)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (the measurement here is a guesstimate, I add enough to coat the bottom of the pan)

1 cup white wine (use a wine you enjoying drinking with fish, or if you don't drink use stock or water)

1 1/4 inch thick slice tomato basil butter per fish fillet

Season the fish with kosher salt and black pepper on both sides. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick saute pan. Brown the fish on both sides over high heat, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Add the wine and bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Place a piece of tomato basil butter on each fillet and cook the fish for 4 to 5 minutes per side until it flakes easily when you press it with a finger or fork. Serve at once. (alternatively you can put the butter on the fish after turning it.)

Summer Garden Salad

Sometimes all you need is a light touch to bring out the flavor in your food. A light touch and really great quality ingredients. Yesterday the boys and I stopped briefly at our community garden plot to pick produce for dinner. Their excitement and pride was adorable as they examined all our plants and happily helped harvest onions (although ours are a bit more like overgrown scallions right now), eggplant, nasturtium leaves and tomatoes. They also took the opportunity to pet our corn plants. I must admit as a native New Yorker I am as giddy as they are about growing my own food. I mean really, I grew food!

My plans for dinner were simple, good bread, several cheeses, prosciutto and a simple salad using my garden produce and avocado. I sliced the eggplant lengthwise and coated the pieces and the baby onions with olive oil and grilled them all over low heat. After the vegetables were done grilling I sliced the eggplant into bite sized pieces and chopped up all of the onion that was good (the stalks of the onion gets very charred on the grill). Then I tossed the grilled eggplant with 2 sliced avocados, the chopped tomatoes and the leaves from our nasturtium plant with a splash of high quality balsamic vinegar, the stuff that has been aged for a long time (mine has aged for 21 years) and extra virgin olive oil, then kosher salt and of course freshly ground black pepper.

Our neighbor came over for dinner and watched my strange ritual of photographing my food and I explained about the blog. I explained that I take the photos before I am sure the dish is worth photographing and sharing here. As he took seconds of salad Paul commented, "Definitely worth photographing."

I am glad the salad was enjoyed so much as this may be the end of my garden's tomatoes. Late blight has hit here in the Northeast and the tomato plants in my garden plot are dying. So far the plants in the front of my house look fine, but I am not holding my breath. I go away on vacation for a week soon and I fully expect to come back to dead plants. Apparently the disease developed on the plants grown for the big box stores. Yet another lesson that food, even plants starts, are not supposed to be grown in huge monocultures. The presence of late blight so early coupled with our wet summer has meant the disease is practically unavoidable. The end result is that this year I may need to buy canned tomatoes. I only hope this will make people appreciate small farmers, and the work they do, even more.

The eggplants were still babies when I picked them but I think I was inspired by Foodie Fights Battle #8: Eggplant and White Wine. I won the Foodie Fights Battle #7: Pineaple and Basil so I was a judge for Battle 8. After reading and obsessing over 6 blog posts about eggplant I couldn't stop thinking about eating mine. Now I am glad I did because the results were delicious.