Preserving tomatoes

[TobyLerone]

I'm starting to get quite a few tomatoes coming in my garden. I can't use them all and they're not all ripening at the same time, worse luck!

I want to make a tomato and apple chutney, but the apples on my tree won't be ready for another month or so, at least. There are also a ton of them.

I don't want to waste anything, but I can't keep the tomatoes until the apples are ready.

Is there a way of freezing tomatoes without cooking them? Can I chop/de-seed them ready for chutney, but then freeze them?

In my Country Living mag this month they are drying them in the oven - sun dried. Because of the water content I would think its impossible to freeze them raw.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Maybe I'll have to stew them a bit and then freeze them, and chuck them in later in the chutney.

Slow cook your glut with onion, garlic & make a stack of passata/sauce for use throughout the year. Then buy some overripe toms from your local grocer for pence later in the season for your chutney? Apples over this way are early this year so you may find some early ones alternatively - but you may be scuppered to make your own homegrown chutney! Shame, but frozen tomato sauce is a godsend in the winter when you need a taste of summer...

Lucky you. Mine were mostly all cherries this year and I am regretting not planting some 'proper' varieties for preserving. Ho hum, next year...

Yeah, they won't go to waste. I can always use them for pasta sauce. I just wanted the chutney to be made with things from my garden, you know?

Completely understand! Nothing more satisfying... :o