Freezing and then canning really does not seem like a good use of time and resources to me. Nor will it do anything to improve the quality of your end product. IMO, you're over-complicating this food preservation business.

My advice?

Eat as many fresh tomatoes as possible. Enjoy produce while it's in season.

To save freezer space, throw all of your tomatoes in a big roasting pan (yes, mix varieties, it doesn't matter). Roast them in the oven at medium heat. After about a half hour, remove some of the excess water by draining it off with a ladle to hurry the process along a bit. Roast the tomatoes until they collapse and thicken. Puree through a food mill (which will also remove skins and seeds). Further reduce the sauce by roasting some more, or just put in freezer containers and freeze.

By freezing reduced puree rather than whole tomatoes, you'll be saving freezer space with a very useable and palatable end product.

If you are going to make sauce it works great, but do core & I also quarter the tomatoes. Keep in a ziplock bag or large rubbermaid type container in the freezer that you can continually add to. When you are ready to make the sauce thaw the tomatoes in the fridge (very important). Then strain in a colander and proceed as recipe recommends.

When you say it might be bad for your electric stove, do you have a flat top or regular coil stove? I have coils and yes the canner is hard on them but you can buy extra duty coils for just this purpose which I have been meaning to do. I don't know about flat tops. But I am sure someone else can help you there.

Mary I like your idea of roasting the tomatoes before putting them through a food mill. I'll have to try to remember that.

Could you clarify if you plan to can whole, halved or crushed tomatoes or are you planning to make sauce?

I think it makes a BIG difference in how the question of freezing is answered.

IF you want to can whole, etc. I would not freeze first. The cells will be broken, loss of liquid and by the time you thaw, then can, it'll be mush. Suggest you BWB in small batches (1-4 qts.) as the tomatoes ripen. Use a smaller pot as mentioned if needed.

IF you're making sauce, I highly recommend freezing first. The skins slip off easily, much of the liquid is gone (saves time boiling down), and the toms are softer for running through whatever type of strainer/food mill you use.
Added benefit of being able to decide WHEN you want to process (cooler weather). But, yes, it's taking up freezer space for awhile.

Clear (er)??? LOL
Deanna

I simply pick as many as I can within a 3-4 day period or longer if there isn't any spoilage. NEVER REFRIGERATE tomatoes you plan to eat fresh. Once you get a big amount, run them through a food strainer and you now have a nice sauce that you can cook and can. Coring and freezing is fine if ou haven't the time to dal with canning yet. As mentioned mots skins fall off, but you do end up with a wery watery mess too. Using a decent food strainer will get all seeds and skins out at the start.

Roasting is fine too, but its usually more useful AFTER they have been run through the food strainer and you want to remove excees water to thicken the sauce.

A filled freezer is more economical to run than a partially empty one, so putting fruits or vegetables into a freezer in preparation for canning is not wasting resources. Sometimes it's the only way to gather enough of a scarce commodity to eventually can them, or to salvage things to harvest them at their prime for canning. I do this with berries in berry season because I have freezer space and am so busy with other gardening chores don't always have the time for canning or jelly making as they come on. I also go through my freezer in mid to late summer and unload a lot of stuff by canning it to open up more freezer space for things like butchered beef or chickens or things not really suitable for canning (like pumpkin or squash). I take beef bones and make stock and can it. Berries made into jellies and jams or sometimes canned for pies. I find little difference in where one stores them initially if they plan on canning them eventually and find it's simply a matter of what works best for you. Food preservation is a major part of my homemaking duties and I take it very seriously putting up three to four hundred containers of preserved food a year for a household of two. We are always playing musical chairs with where any given crop is at any given time on the food preservation chain.

What if, like organic mamag you don't have enough tomatoes at one time and want to freeze them for later making canned crushed tomatoes. I would like to use the crushed tomatoes (with no added liquid) recipe on the National Center of Home Food Preservation site.

You remove the skin and core then quarter. I am wondering if I freeze them will I lose too much liquid to can them with out adding something? Would you just dump the bags in liquid and all?

dgkritch says above that it makes a BIG difference in how they are frozen.

As I said above "But if you want to can them whole, halved, or crushed then core them before freezing because it is impossible to get the core out of frozen tomatoes without a mess. When ready to process, take them out of the freezer, slip off the skins (easy), heat and pack into jars to which you have added the required lemon juice or citric acid."

The only issue in question is coring them or not before freezing. If you are going to food mill them for sauce or juice then they don't need to be cored before freezing. Anything else requires coring before freezing.

Dave

Something else you might consider is a canning element. It's a heavy-duty coil burner specifically designed for the weight and size of boiling water bath and pressure canners. This can reduce the likelihood of damage to your electric stove. Just be sure it's compatible with your brand of range.

Even if you can't afford it now, it's something to keep in mind for the future.

Here is a link that might be useful: Canning Element

Thanks, sorry I missed it.

There is also this style that has thicker metal support struts as well as a heat shield ring. It raises teh burner off the stove about an inch and a half.

Here is a link that might be useful: Another canning elementt

The instructions and processing time for the recipe I would like to try for Crushed Tomatoes (with no added liquid) from NCHFP is a little different than the one Dave posted.

1.If I understand it correctly I can pressure can pints/quarts with a weighted gauge: 20 min @ 5 lbs, 15 min @ 10 lbs and 10 min @ 15 lbs. Does it make any difference in the end product which I choose. I have all three weights. Or would they come out better if they were done in a boiling-water canner?

2. My tomatoes are frozen so would I be right to assume that I wouldn't want to thaw them out completely, as I will need the water that would drain off if I did?

3. If they shouldn't be completely thawed 1st, should I throw them in at the same time instead of in at 2 different times as the instructions say. That way they might be uniformly thawed and cooked?

Sorry if I am asking too many questions. I really do appreciate the patience you've shown.

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP CRUSHED TOMATOES (with no added liquid)

Dave,

I've never heard of the class cracking on a glass top stove for canning. I've simmered stuff on mine for HOURS with no problem.

When I BWB, I bring it up to a full, rolling boil, then back it down to maintain a steady, healthy boil for however time I need. I think leaving the burner on at HIGH for the entire cooking time could be problematic for anything. I dont't think the stove is made to cook something at full HIGH for long periods of time.

gardengrl, I have a glass top stove too. I had planned to do my canning on it but the manual and company said I can't use it for canning or it would void the warranty if something happened to the cooktop as a result. What does your manual say?

guess i just don't taste the difference! i wash and freeze whole tomatoes, or the good parts of imperfect ones. in october (canning in august? i can't deal with it) i cook a bunch of them, skins, seeds and all. they cut up nicely when half thawed, so the skins aren't too big. this year i dried purslane and added some of that to the sauce. i swear it does thicken it, like i've read, and with no added taste. with herbs and garlic, in an hour it goes on the pasta. mmmmmm...

I really don't know why you couldn't do that.

As to the water, it would depend on whether you wanted a thicker product or not. If you do, save the water, if not let some drain.

Yes, I'd core mine first - it is a mess to do it after thawing. I learned that much.

If I don't have enough to do what I want, I wash them then freeze whole ( in fact I have a large bag in there now). Then when they start to thaw, I core them and the sKins will slip right off. A lot less messy this way. I picked all my green tomatoes before a frost this fall, and then as they ripen freeze them until I get enough for what I want to do. I also save some to add to soups or stews thru the winter and spring. I've kept them over a year with good results

I use an outdoor crawfish boiler for all of my canning and preserving tasks. I like to keep the excess heat out of the house and the high output propane burner makes boiling a snap.