Due to heavy rains in June and July crops are maturing faster than usual in the Madison area this year. The rain pattern has been particularly hard on tomatoes. Gardeners are noticing that their tomatoes are split before they have fully matured on the vine. The cause is heavy rains in an irregular pattern. The tomatoes should be picked to finish the ripening process sitting in the open sun.
Now that you have twenty pounds of tomatoes – what’s next? The easiest storage solution is freezing. Here are two extremely simple says to freeze tomatoes. The first, simply wash the tomatoes, cut them into quarters, place them in a plastic freezer bag and pop them into the freezer. Nothing could be simpler. Quartered frozen tomatoes are excellent for soup stock in the winter, especially as a base for homemade chili.
You can also make an excellent tomato sauce for freezing. Start with a variety of tomatoes from the garden. Using a variety of tomatoes adds complexity to the sauce without relying on herbs. Cut an X in each tomato then put them on a pan covered with parchment paper and bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. Cool after baking and remove the skins. Then comes the fun part, squish them in a bowl with your hands and add spices to suite your taste including basil, garlic, vinegar, salt and pepper. It’s best to use fresh basil from your garden, tearing the leaves and putting them in the sauce raw. Put the sauce in a freezer container of your choice. You’ll have a tasty sauce for the long Wisconsin winters.
