Sunday, October 05, 2014

Preserving: Tiny Tomato Assembly Line

I had volunteer tomato plants this year. They popped up in my flower pots so I'm not sure where they came from. When they got bigger, I transplanted them to my float garden. Two are grape tomatoes, the fancy ones you buy in expensive little plastic boxes.

I love them, but like all tomatoes they ripen in big batches.

I was going to make spaghetti so I thought, why not use up some of my tiny tomatoes. I set up an assembly line in the kitchen.


First, I trimmed the stem end and slit one side of each tomato. It didn't take very long. Once they were all processed, I was ready to start.

I put a handful of tomatoes in a pan of hot water for about 5 seconds. I scooped them out with a spoon and into a strainer.

I then put them in a bowl to cool slightly. Then came the fun part.


I squeezed each tomato and out popped the flesh. The skin remained intact, easy to discard. Processing in small batches went pretty fast.

I cut the tomatoes in half and simmered them for about an hour to make my sauce. The seeds were so small they "disappeared" once I added my sauteed veggies to the mix.

If you have too many tiny tomatoes, here's a good way to use them.

After my next picking, I plan to make and freeze some sauce for future use. Waste not, want not. -- Margy

9 comments:

  1. I love your stove shots lately. Thanks for the tips on small tomatoes.

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  2. The tiny tomatoes are tastier!

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  3. It's like the food comes to you to grow!

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  4. I never thought about doing that with all those volunteer cherry tomatoes I had! I wish I would have tried it but the chickens benefited from my neglect.

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  5. I think we just ran into your YouTube video of your cabin? Is that yours? If so, my husband said you are his heroine! He would love, LOVE, to live this way on the water. He grew up with houseboats and cruisers. I get motion sick. If this is yours, what an interesting life you have !

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  6. Free grape tomatoes!!
    I bet your sauce was very tasty.

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  7. Stephanie - I love my new propane stove, especially the oven. The one in my old stove didn't work well. It was set up for natural gas originally and the adjustment just never got right for temperature control.

    Roger and Hamilton - I'm not a huge fresh tomato fan, except for the tiny ones. They are so much sweeter and flavourful. And the grape ones have less seeds, a plus for me.

    Jennifer - Well, not exactly. I do have my black thumb challenge to work with.

    Kathy - They are a lot of work if you have a huge crop, but with my little one from two plants it's an easy process.

    Margy

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  8. Kathy - Yes, that's our float cabin in the YouTube video by Kirsten at faircompanies. She made it from raw footage I sent her. We've also been on the Travel Channel and will be on a new program airing in November on a French Canadian channel. -- Margy

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  9. Oooh, lucky you. The Mama used to get volunteer tomato plants all over her backyard. The last few years of drought has decreased the yield. Now we go to a u-pick organic tomato day whenever we can. Some I make into sauce and freeze, but most we just wash, bag whole, and freeze. They still taste great several months later.

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We welcome your comments and questions. - Wayne and Margy