[ddc]

Hi all,

I'm starting to get alot of tomatoes from the garden and am freezing most of them.
I've been blanching them to remove the skins, cutting off the top and core, and sqeezing out the seeds, which also is sqeezing out the juice.

Does anyone know another way to get out the seeds without losing the juice?
I guess I could squeeze them over a strainer and bowl to catch the juice. Do I even need the juice? - lol ! I just feel like I'm wasting part of the tomato essence if I let the juice go down the drain.

Anyone have another method of freezing tomatoes?

Thanks

[Ruthxxx]

I don't worry about the seeds because I need the fiber.

My method is very lazy? I simply wash the tomatoes and freeze them whole pn a tray. When they are rock hard they go into plastic bags and into the freezer. When I want to use them, I run very hot tap water over them and the skins pop right off.

[ddc]

Oh, thanks. Great idea!!

I don't know why I want to get the seeds out. I don't think they cause me any problems.
I've read that they're bad for certain conditions, like diverticulitis, but I don't have that, AFAIK .

[rdw1]

I am so glad I saw this! What a great idea Ruth! unfortunately this year my tomatoes aren't doing so hot I think because of all the rain we had so early... but i did throw a few out last week so I know what to do with them now! My freezer probably isn't large enough to store a bunch of them anyway~

[sophie]

hey, I don't know if I saw the suggestion on 3FC but I did that last year (as per Ruth's instructions) and it was great. I don't know if I will have as many tomatoes this year but I plan to buy some and freeze them, it just gives a very fresh taste to everything I cooked.
take care
Sophie

[AnnieDrews]

Great idea on freezing them whole.

DDC-I feel guilty wasting the juice, too! However, last time I made homemade salsa I did squeeze some juice out with the seeds. The time prior to that the salsa was way too liquid-ey. If I don't want to lose too much juice, I just quarter or halve the tomatoes and pull the seeds out with my fingers instead of squeezing them out and losing juice. Some recipes call for this because the seeds can get bitter in some recipes.