Dave, do you have a preserving unit? If so, you should have received an instruction booklet with that.

But it's dead easy. Peel (or not) tomatoes, fill (clean) preserving jars up to 2cm from the rim. Add citric acid (can't remember exact amount). Put the ring around the top edge (into the groove), lid on top, then the clamp. Put jars into preserving unit, fill with water so that they are totally immersed (water level is 2-3cm above lids). Switch on unit for 1 hour. Do not let boil. Take out after 1 hour, let cool. Store. Take picture and post here.

But don't worry, come harvest time, we'll be busy swapping tips, recipes, and suggestions again.

Spatzbear... Good point, first get preserving unit, good place to start.
Thanks..

A friend up here just puts em into any jar with a tight lid. Put em in when boiling, and screw the lid on, seems to work fine.

Adamus... Now that sounds easy, Have to try it..
Thanks Dave

Hi Dave,
Have you tried oven dried tomatoes...delish!!
Cut cherry tomatoes in half or Romas in 1/4s (other tomatoes to similar size). Place cut side up on tray in oven at 60 deg C (or 40 fan forced) and bake for 8 hrs. If they don't seem dry enough do it longer. You can sprinkle them with salt, balsamic vinegar, herbs of choice, olive oil...whatever you fancy. You can make them semi dried, very dry or anywhere in between. They will keep for quite some time in the fridge. Btw, some people remove the pulp and seeds before drying them. It does speed up the drying process a little but creates quite a lot of extra (and I think unnecessary) work
Cheers,
Dee.

Hi Dave
All we do is basic, cut tomatoes into pieces throw them into a thick bottom pot and boil on low for several hours or more to get the right consistancy blending it with a hand held blender a couple of times during cooking. Let it cool then put in clip seal bags and freeze. You may want to add herds and what ever else to flavour during the cooking process. Each batch normaly tastes different because of the different variaties cherries tend to make it sweet. Our freezer looks like a blood bank this time of year. lol Hope this helps you Dave,
Happy gardening Keith

Thanks all for the replies, will have a try at all, i am trying to fined a preserving unit at the moment, most of my toms are only 2" high at the moment so have some time to get things set up. Thanks again to all and Have a good day..
Dave

I like the clip seal bag idea. Will try that this year.

I save pasta sauce bottles as I can fit a lot of them upright into a large pot and get them simmering with some tongs and a funnel. Meanwhile I boil up my sauce then funnel it into the bottles and cap them.

Return the full bottles to the pot and simmer for another 40 minutes. Put something in the bottom of the pot to keep the glass off the bottom.

We eat them pretty quickly so I can't vouch for long lasting but they go okay in the pantry for a few months.

We had a bumper crop of Principe Borghese last year and I tried several things. PBs are small, so you only have to cut them in half and they took around 4 hours' drying time:

Oven dry to semi-dried level and put in sterilised jar with Good Olive Oil, garlic & Herbs. Stores in fridge for at least a month and in cupboard for a little less. You have to take them out of the fridge a while before you want to use them as the oil solidifies. Tastes fantastic, great for cooking, add them first as your oil, and fantastic antipasto after about a week in the flavoured oil. Oven dry then cool. Dump into snaplock plastic bags and freeze. Only good for cooking after this, but good all the same.

Larger tommies: blanch then peel and cook with or without extras (but ALWAYS with a bit of salt) then cool & freeze in (washed) leftover chinese food tubs or those ones you can buy from the supermarket (these can be reused again and again if you take care washing them!). Good size as a sauce base for 2 people :-)

I do want to get a bottling kit for this season, but freezing is a good alternative. My MIL (being Greek, LOL) just uses a big pan over the barbeque and jars saved over the year... I'm not as confident to wing it :-)