Harvesting, Storage and Preserving Tomatoes

Parts to Harvest

Just the fruit is edible from tomatoes. They can be eaten at any stage of ripeness. Green tomatoes will ripen in storage, too, but they taste best when left on the vine till ripe & ready.

All other parts of the plant are poisonous, as with all of the nightshades. 

Days to Harvest

Early cultivars are ready in as little as 50-55 days, but in general they run from 75-85 days, with a few way out there at 90-100 days.

Harvest Methods

1. Tomatoes are ready to harvest when they start smelling like a tomato. The color should be uniform, which will probably be 7-10 days after it first starts to color.
2. Pick them by twisting the fruit gently sideways at the knuckle of the stem.
3. Green Tomatoes: about 6 weeks before the first frost date, stop watering (or slack off considerably). this will force these green tomatoes to ripen. 

Storage of Your Harvest

Fresh Tomatoes

Unripe or Green Tomatoes

Unripe, green tomatoes can be stored individually wrapped, or left on the plant.

For individually wrapping, pick all of your tomatoes, even the green tomatoes, right before the first frost. Don't wash them; just wipe off any dirt. Pick out any tomatoes with splits or other blemishes; these should be eaten, not stored. Wrap them individually with paper. Newspaper, tissue paper, brown paper bags, or shredded paper will work. The point is to keep them from touching each other. Lay them in a single layer in a drawer, or crate, or tray, in a cool, dark place, like a root cellar. Check at least once per week for ripe ones and to make sure things aren't starting to rot or getting eaten.

You can also cut down the entire plant at the dirt and hang them upside down or lay them in dry straw

Ripe Tomatoes

Fresh, ripe tomatoes should never be refrigerated. It reduces their flavor and changes the texture. If they are in danger of rotting before you can eat them, you can put them into the fridge, though, to try to stop the rotting process. I also put a sliced tomato in the fridge, if I can't finish it. The perfect way to store them is just right on the counter, with the stem-side down. Eat them before they go soft.

Freezing Tomatoes

In my opinion, freezing is the easiest method of preserving tomatoes. They definitely need to be cooked or blended, since the freezing turns their flesh mushy, but there's no need for blanching & peeling.

Tools & Equipment Needed:

• Packaging:
  • Vacuum Seal System
  • or Ziplocs
  • or Canning jars that are okay to freeze
  • or plastic containers that are okay to freeze
• Freezer: Frost-free freezers work fine for tomatoes, but it would be great if you had a non-frost-free freezer

Methods:

Whole Tomatoes:

• By far the easiest and most flexible method.
• Can be chopped or crushed or pureed when the time comes to cook with them.
• Wash, core and trim any blemishes, then freeze individually, cored-side-down on a sheet.
• When frozen, package them up in vacuum-seal bags (or ziplocs), about a pound to each bag.
• This is just about the quivalent to a 15-oz can of tomatoes.
• When it's time to cook with them, the skin slips right off with a gentle tug when they are defrosting.

Diced Tomatoes:

• Wash, core & trim, then dice away.
• If using cherry tomatoes, just slice them in half
• I don't bother with peeling them, but I do try to dice them in a way that makes the skin edge as small as possible
• Package up in 1-pound portions.

Pureed Tomatoes:

• This is one of the few methods that is also great for preserving cherry tomatoes
• Wash, core & trim
• No need to peel
• Puree with a blender or food processor

Roasted Tomatoes:

• YUM!! these are great defrosted and broiled with cheese on baguettes or served on top of chicken breasts with mozzarella...or sliced and added to pasta. Many options here.
• Wash, core & trim tomatoes
• Halve tomatoes in cross-section, horizontally
• arrange cut-side-up in a baking pan
• drizzle with olive oil, season with salt & pepper & garlic, add oregano too...
• roast at 400 degrees F until juices in pan have evaporated and the tomatoes have browned to your liking. this will take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours
• while they are roasting, periodically move them away from the edges of the pan; make sure to not let them scorch
• when they are done, let them cool to room temperature then freeze them individually on a baking sheet covered with parchment
• once frozen, package them in vacuum seal bags or ziplocs - in approriate quantities for your uses

Tomato Paste:

I tried this for the first time last year and can't believe I've never done it before. Homemade tomato paste tastes amazing - compared to store bought (and I usually buy Muir Glen). Great way to handle a bumper crop of tomatoes...and it's way more usable than canned tomato paste when it's frozen in ice cube trays which are 1 fl oz (2 T), since recipes never seem to call for an entire can of it.

• I used about 6.5 pounds of tomatoes to 1/4 cup olive oil, plus savory ingredients (garlic, bay leaves, oregano, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper)
• washed, cored & chopped tomatoes
• preheated oven to 300 degrees F
• cooked tomatoes, herbs & garlic with OO until softened (about 10 minutes)
• pureed the mixture with stick blender
• poured the entire mixture into a large baking pan
• then I roasted it, stirring occasionally, until it thickened (it should part when you run a spatula through it)
  • I forgot to note how long this took, but I remember it was a long time...maybe 2-4 hours
• then I poured it all into ice cube trays
• 6.5 lbs of tomatoes = 13 cups = reduced to 38 fl oz of paste (or 38 ice cubes)
• when frozen I packaged them in vacuum seal bags with 6-8 per bag

Canning Tomatoes

Time and energy intensive (not to mention HOT work in the warmest days of summer), but results in the best texture and longest lasting. Also requires special equipment.

Tools & Equipment Needed:

• Hot water bath canner
• Canning jars
• Canning equipment (jar lifter, lids, rack, funnel, ladle)

Methods:

Tomatoes need to be peeled by blanching after washing, coring, and trimming. To learn how to can, pick up a copy of the age-old standard Ball Blue Book guide to canning at any hardware store, or any store that sells canning supplies. This is the standard that all refer to. Tomatoes can be canned whole, diced or pureed.

Drying Tomatoes

This is my second-favorite method of preserving tomatoes. Especially because of the price of store-bought sun-dried tomatoes, and because of how little space they take up when storing.

Tools & Equipment Needed:

• Dehydrator - or if you are like me, and you live where it's very dry in the summer (we get down to 12%-18% humidity) you just need a screen
• packaging: ziplocs or vacuum sealer

Method:

• Wash, core and trim blemishes
• cut the tomatoes crosswise, making 1/8"-1/4" slices. Too thick makes them take too long to dry; too thin makes them stick to the screen.
• lay out flat, not touching and cover with cheese cloth or more screen material, if you are doing outside.
• they take about 2-4 days to dry outside here in Redding, CA
• It takes about 2-3 pounds to make 2-3 ounces

Pickled Tomatoes

One final method of preserving tomatoes is the age-old art of pickling. I have pickled cherry tomatoes, to some success, although I think they absorbed way too much vinegar...so I will have to work on that. There are also lots of recipes for pickling green tomatoes - that might be what I try next year with the abundance of green tomatoes I have every November.

Sources

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