• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Montana Homesteader

Sharing vintage skills so you can live a simple, more meaningful homemade life- one canning jar at a time!

  • Start here
    • Home
    • About
    • Shop
    • Privacy Policy
  • Recipes
  • Forage
  • Grow
  • Make
  • Preserve
  • Raise
    • Beekeeping
    • Chickens
  • Homesteading Resources
  • Start here
    • Home
    • About
    • Shop
    • Privacy Policy
  • Recipes
  • Forage
  • Grow
  • Make
  • Preserve
  • Raise
    • Beekeeping
    • Chickens
  • Homesteading Resources
You are here: Home / PRESERVE / How to Preserve and Freeze Tomatoes

How to Preserve and Freeze Tomatoes

September 14, 2018 //  by Annie Bernauer//  2 Comments

Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
Linkedin
Share on yummly
Yummly

I learned how to preserve tomatoes as a little girl helping my mom, grandmother and great grandmother in the kitchen every summer. Freezing and preserving tomatoes are so easy that it is one of the staples of my food preserving that I do every year no matter what size garden we have or how busy we are. This week my friend with a farm down the road gifted us three huge flats of seconds heirloom tomatoes. What an amazing gift! The challenge was that the tomatoes were all quite ripe and needed preserved ASAP so we got to work. Now one section of our deep freezer is filled with preserved frozen tomatoes to eat all year long!

crates of tomatoes, tomatoes in boiling water, tomatoes with skin peeling and freezer containers of peeled and chopped tomatoes ready to freeze and preserve

This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission when a product is purchased through these links, at no additional charge to you. Thank you for your support! 

Sometimes when harvesting and preserving season is so busy I don’t have time to make in-depth recipes to preserve like homemade tomato sauce, homemade ketchup, or homemade tomato soup. Freezing is always my quick and easy go-to method of preserving tomatoes.  Then later in fall or winter when preserving season winds down and life slows down a bit, I can thaw out some of our frozen tomatoes and have the time to make more time intensive tomato based recipes. 

How to Preserve Tomatoes by Freezing

  • Step 1: Rinse the tomatoes to remove any dust or dirt. 
  • Step 2: Boil a large pot of water. Carefully place tomatoes into the boiling water. I use a large slotted spoon (this is the one we have and love!) to help place the tomatoes into the water so I don’t get splashed with hot water. 
  • Step 3: Leave the tomatoes in the boiling water for a few minutes or until the skin cracks. Using a slotted spoon, remove the tomatoes and place them on a cookie sheet or tray to cool. 
  • Step 4: Slip the tomato skin off the tomato and remove the stem. 
  • Step 5: Quarter the tomato and place it in a freezer container*.
  • Step 6: Once the freezer containers are 3/4 full, wipe the outsides off to remove any tomato juice drippings. Leave the containers sitting with no lid on until the tomatoes are cool. Once I put the lid on, I write on the lid with a permanent black marker what the contents are and the year. Then the containers of tomatoes go in the freezer until we want to use some of our preserved frozen tomatoes! 

*I have a big stash of 32oz plastic yogurt containers that I like to preserve tomatoes in when freezing (I also use these to freeze left over chili and soups so they are quite handy!) Freezing the tomatoes in this size container works great since we fill them about 3/4 full to allow some head space for the tomatoes and their juices to expand as they freeze and not push out of the container or crack it. My mom also gave me a few of these containers and they are really handy for freezing food, I especially love the tight sealing twist on lid! 

How to use Preserved Frozen tomatoes

I use our frozen tomatoes in a variety of recipes instead of using store bought chopped or diced tomatoes. Since we just slice and quarter the tomatoes, they are versatile and can be used in any recipe that needs chopped tomatoes. I add them into our favorite homemade venison chili recipe, make homemade tomato soup, homemade spaghetti sauce, and tomato based soups. I also use them to make our delicious homemade ketchup. 

We have a large chest freezer so freezing tomatoes is the easiest way for us to preserve them. A few years ago when we had over 200lbs of tomatoes we grew , I did can quart jars of tomato puree  since I ran out of room in our big freezer. Here’s a post over at Simply Canning where you can find out how to can tomatoes if you also want to give that method a try.

If you preserve tomatoes, what method do you use? What are your favorite ways to use preserved tomatoes?

Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
Linkedin
Share on yummly
Yummly

More Homesteading Inspiration

Fresh carrots stored properly in the refrigerator to stay crunchy

How to store carrots in the fridge

Storing apples long term for winter without refrigeration

How to store apples for winter without refrigeration

Jars of homemade canned rose hip jelly and fresh wild rose hips

How to make and can Rose Hip Jelly

Oregon Grapes ripe on the wild plant and jars of homemade Oregon Grape jelly

How to make and can Oregon Grape jelly

Fermenting pickles in a crock and sliced fermented pickle to explain how to make fermented pickles

How to make fermented sour dill crock pickles

How to preserve leeks picture of leeks being chopped Montana Homesteader blog

How to preserve and freeze leeks

How to make can or freeze applesauce or pear sauce with pictures of a bowl of chopped fruit a bowl of cooked fruit and a picture of it being processed through a food mill to turn it into sauce

How to make and can or freeze applesauce and pear sauce

How to make and can elderberry jelly includes a picture of wild elderberries on the bush in the mountains and a picture of jars of homemade canned elderberry jelly

How to make and can elderberry jelly

How to make fermented sauerkraut with a picture of shredded cabbage being pounded to make sauerkraut and the final fermented sauerkraut in a handmade crock

How to make sauerkraut

How to preserve and freeze cauliflower with a picture of a bowl of chopped cauliflower and a picture of vacuum sealed packs of cauliflower to preserve and freeze

How to preserve and freeze cauliflower

How to make pesto showing a glass jar full of homemade pesto with a picture of basil in a food processor and frozen cubes of pesto

How to Make and Freeze Pesto

How to preserve and freeze peaches picture showing skin pealing on fresh peach, bowl of chopped peaches and container of peaches in light syrup topped with waxed paper to help prevent browning when freezing

How to preserve and freeze peaches

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Annette

    September 15, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    I started freezing tomatoes a few years ago because it is just too hot to can in an Illinois summer. I get them out in the fall and winter and make juice and salsa, as well as adding them to soups.

    Reply
    • Annie @ Montana Homesteader

      September 15, 2018 at 8:32 pm

      Less time in a hot kitchen is another great reason to freeze tomatoes instead of canning!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hello I'm Annie and welcome to our blog!

I was raised in an old farmhouse in the country and taught by three generations of women in my family to cook from scratch, can and preserve food, nurture plants to grow, craft with my hands, and live a simple, meaningful life. Now I'm teaching my own children these skills on our little homestead in Montana. I'm sharing these vintage skills here so you too can live a simple, more connected homemade life- one canning jar at a time! Read more...

Site Footer

Some of the posts on this website contain affiliate links. This means I receive a small commission when a product is purchased through these links at no additional cost to you. Montana Homesteader  participates in the Amazon Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support!

Follow Montana Homesteader

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop
  • Newsletter
  • Homesteading Resources
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Montana Homesteader · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Mai Theme