IQF Tomatoes - A Simple Way to Store Them

Well, this will be my last post showing different ways that we preserve the tomato harvest.  I thought about one other method that we use.  We like to diversify the way we store things so that we have plenty of choices.  We can stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and salsa and stockpile it in the pantry.  We dry tomatoes in the oven and dehydrator.  Finally, we blanch and freeze whole tomatoes and bag them in the freezer so we can use them one at a time as we need them.  This is probably the easiest method of storing tomatoes and we'll show you how we do it.

It first involves picking them when they are at their ripest and we bring them in and get to work.

Nice red fruit

We have a number of different varieties of tomatoes that we grow.

Ready to be blanched

We place a big pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil.  Once the water is boiling, we gently drop them in, leaving them in the boiling water for a minute or less.  Then we remove them and dunk them in ice water to stop the cooking process. Once cool, we use a sharp knife to core the tomatoes, removing the stem and hard center and any defects and we also pull the skins off.  They come off easy if blanched for the appropriate amount of time.

Blanched tomatoes ready to by frozen

IQF is an acronym for Individually Quick Frozen.  While we don't have the necessary equipment to technically do this, an ordinary freezer will do the job.  Simply lay your tomatoes out on a tray and close the door.  The next day they are frozen solid and you can use a spatula to pry them up off of the tray.

Cold Whole Tomatoes

Once you pry them up, freeze them in a gallon sized Zip Loc bag, seal, and put back in the freezer.  This enables you to select one at a time or however many you need for cooking.

It's in the bag!

IQF Tomatoes - one more way to preserve the harvest!