How to Preserve Your Tomato Harvest

It's that time of year again--when gardeners turn around and find themselves overrun with produce. Peppers, corn, and green beans seem to ripen faster than you can eat them. Luckily, all of these allow you to reap the benefits of your garden for the remainder of the year by preserving. My favorite produce, though, for preserving is the tomato. The versatility and abundance of this vegetable (or are they a fruit?) allows you to prepare them in numerous ways depending on how you choose to use them in the future.

Canning is perhaps the most popular way of preserving tomatoes, and it's the one I prefer. If kept simple, tomatoes can be processed in a boiling water bath instead of a pressure canner. Before you begin, the tomatoes have to be prepared, meaning the skins need to come off. To do this, submerge the tomatoes into boiling water (this is easiest to do if they are in a wire basket...they can then all be pulled out at once). They don't need to stay in the boiling water long--usually 30-60 seconds, just until the skins begin to crack. Remove them from the boiling water and immediately dip into cold water. The skins will then easily slip off the tomatoes.

To can tomatoes whole, halved, or quartered, you need to first make sure your jars are hot. An easy way to do this is to simply line your jars (quarts work best with whole tomatoes) up on a cookie sheet and put in a warm oven for about ten minutes. When they are hot, add two tablespoons bottled lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon citric acid to each jar. Pack your tomatoes into the jars, being sure to leave 1/2 inch headspace at the top. Ladle hot water over the tomatoes and add a teaspoon of salt (optional) to each jar. Remove any air bubbles by running a knife down the inside edges of the jar. Attach the two-piece lids and process jars for 45 minutes in boiling water.

Another way to make use of your tomatoes is by canning their sauce. Simmer the peeled tomatoes until soft, then press them through a food mill or juicer (one method is just as messy as the other). Cook the juice over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick, until it reduces by 1/2. Great for use in soups, pizza, or pastas, you can add any herbs (oregano, bay), garlic, onion, or peppers that you wish. Add two tablespoons of lemon juice to each hot quart jar, then ladle in hot tomato sauce. Adjust the caps, then process for 40 minutes in boiling water. If you don't have time to cook down the tomatoes, can the juice to make sauce later. Simply cook the juice to 190 degrees for five minutes, being careful not to boil, then process just as you would sauce.

These are just a few of the numerous ways you can preserve your surplus of tomatoes. Experiment with different spices and ingredients to suit your taste and take your time with your canning. Having homemade sauce on your pasta in December will make you glad you did!