Forest Girl Farm

You do not need to boil a pot of water, score an X in the bottom of every tomato, or stand over a steaming sink in August to peel tomatoes. You just need a freezer and about four hours of patience.

Freeze a tomato whole, run it under the tap while it is still frozen, and the skin slides off in one piece. It works every time, and it changed how I handle the August pile-up completely.

How do you freeze tomatoes whole?

1. Wash the tomatoes and pat them dry. Leave the skins on and the cores in.
2. Lay them in a single layer on a sheet pan, not touching.
3. Freeze until rock solid, about 4 hours for slicers, closer to 2 for paste types like Roma or San Marzano.
4. Transfer to a gallon freezer bag, press out the air, and label it with the month.

That is the whole process. No blanching, no ice bath, no seeds all over the counter. On a heavy week I can put up a full bag in the time it takes the kids to finish a snack.

Why does the skin come off so easily?

Freezing ruptures the cell walls just under the skin, so the flesh and the peel stop holding onto each other. Thirty seconds of cool running water on a frozen tomato is enough to loosen it, and the skin peels back like a jacket. Do it over a bowl, because there will be juice.

What can you actually cook with them?

Frozen tomatoes go soft and watery when they thaw, which rules out salads and sandwiches. Everything cooked is fair game:

• Sauce. Peel them frozen, drop them straight into a hot pan with olive oil and garlic, and simmer. They break down faster than fresh ones.
• Soup. Toss two or three in whole, skins and all, and blend at the end.
• Chili and braises. They melt into the pot and nobody asks questions.
• Roasted tomato anything. Halve them while still frozen, which is far easier than wrestling a ripe one, then roast at 400°F until the edges catch.

A few things worth knowing

• Paste tomatoes freeze best because there is less water to lose. Cherry tomatoes work too and need no peeling at all.
• Quality holds for about 8 to 10 months, so an August bag is still good the following spring.
• Cut out any bad spots before freezing, not after. Frozen tomatoes are hard to trim neatly.
• Do not thaw them on the counter and walk away. They collapse into a puddle.

Canning has its place, and I still do a batch or two when the timing lines up. But most years the freezer is what actually saves the harvest, because it asks for ten minutes instead of a whole afternoon.

How are you keeping up with your tomatoes this month?