Oh, those are some pretty tomatoes, L. I just can them all together, as crushed tomatoes, they're pretty with the different colors in the jar.

As for floating, mine do that too. When they get cool I just turn the jar a couple of times and it all blends together and there's no more floating. (shrug)

I also used mine to make enchilada sauce, pizza sauce, Chase's chili sauce and KatieC's chipotle catsup, as well as salsa. And I used that same mix of tomatoes for all of those things.

Annie

I make some other sauces too for canning- enchilada sauce, steak sauce, chili sauce... that sort of stuff. Those are long- cook sauces, usually 12+ hours in a slow cooker. Sometimes I'll make smoked tomato juice because my toms are extra juicy- those get canned into 4 oz jars for adding into stuff.

Tomatoes also freeze well- great for winter use. But I use a majority of non-canning tomatoes for dehydrating. Typically slices, or if it's the small ones, halved or quartered. Sometimes I smoke some before dehydrating. Once dehydrated, they can be used as-is, or ground down into powder.

Last night I used a bunch of my imperfects to make a batch of stuffed pepper soup, using them instead of canned tomatoes. Also used a tomato powder instead of tomato sauce or paste that a lot of recipes call for. It freezes well.

Even if a home canned product seems thin, you can always reduce it more with cooking during use, or plumping it up with dehydrated stuff.

Oy vey, I might have to root out my dehydrator!! I was thinking about making a batch of soup and then freezing it. I have been trying to empty out my freezer so I can defrost it before the weather gets too cold (it lives in my garage). I am swimming against the tide with that idea . . . I should have done it in spring, BEFORE the fall harvest time, but then we were stocking up because we didn't know what would happen maybe with food shortages. Still don't, but we can eat tomatoes for a while . . .

This year I had LOTS of tomatoes. So I did lots of canning. I only do BWB canning. This year I made: Annie's salsa, Ball vodka sauce, Ball red hot sauce & Ellie Topp's chunky tomato basil sauce. I use whatever tomatoes come out of the garden.

I also roasted a bunch of cherry tomatoes with a little olive oil and Italian seasoning and froze those.

So far, I roasted some w/ OO and made a batch of salsa and froze all of it. I've never frozen salsa before and wanted to try it (it's from the recipe that contains OO so cannot be canned :) I also tried the recipe for pickled green tomatoes that someone here mentioned recently (olychick, maybe? I couldn't find the original post). I loved the pickled green ones so much that I ran out to pick most of my green tomatoes to make another batch. lol!

ETA: when it comes to canning tomatoes, I either can them whole or make salsa. I use a very simple (but so good!) recipe that, iirc, came from the local cooperative extension.

I have a dozen processes. This is good for heirlooms. Slow roast in the oven as low as your oven goes. Concentrates the flavors. Freeze flat packet. Cherry toms I freeze whole. When a tray of heirlooms picked blush, then ripens before I can use them.... freezer babies.

Dehydrating tomatoes is great and saves a lot of room. I have made tomato confit and pureed it into sauce. Tomato jam is terrific too and saves a lot of space.

I make a few batches of salsa every year with my regular tomatoes i.e. Big Beef. I'm the only one who like cherry tomatoes fresh so I roasted a bunch of SunSugar, Black Cherry and grape tomatoes with some olive oil, salt and herbs (I added the odd plum tomato and salad sized tomato too so it's not just for cherry type). Roasted at 425 for about 25 minutes. Put them into quart jars and removed all the air bubbles and top off with more olive oil. These are now in the fridge for the winter to put on focaccia, pizza and pasta. As long as they are covered with oil they should be okay for a few months. I like this method because I can do a jar at a time.

I think it is fresh tomato soup for us. There are so many we cannot possibly eat them all.

The year I planted Bonny"s Best, I had tons of fist sized tomatoes. I slipped the skins and just froze the whole tomatoes in gallon Ziplock freezer bags. I just took what I needed out and resealed the bag.

I generally roast extra tomatoes until they are somewhat wilted then freeze them for soups and spaghetti sauce etc.

We don't skin our tomatoes before freezing them. The skins slip off so easily once the tomatoes are frozen. We skin them as we use them and it also helps protect from freezer burn.

Canning tomatoes does not require a pressure canner. It's dead easy, and there are so many different methods out there. Adding onions and celery etc at this point reduces the acid and makes it more important to follow recipes precisely. Using only tomatoes makes it easy to can them in a boiling water bath. No pressure canner. Slow cook them down for a few hours to reduce the wateriness if you like. Puree them if you like. Me, I don't remove skins or anything, just chunk them up, slow cook them for as long as I can to reduce them, and either can them just like that, or stick the immersion blender in and can the puree. I prefer to add the other ingredients such as onions or garlic at the time of use, which simplifies the canning.

Very envious of everyone who has enough extra harvest to preserve. I haven't in years now, but when I did, I froze extra tomatoes whole in bags to use for cooking and salsas later, because I'm just lazy that way. Easy peasy, and as ediej mentions, the skins slip right off after running some water on them to thaw a bit. They were fairly easy to chop up when they were partially thawed as well.

I'm short on freezer space. I only have so many left, and the sauce recipes use up a LOT of them. Hard to choose!

Slip the skins, drain the seeds, chop and cook down. Can with the boiling water bath using the lemon juice,(some of the newer tomatoes don't have enough natural acid). In the sixties, our tomatoes had enough acid to need nothing else. It is always easier to add what you want to a jar or two of tomatoes, than to guess what you want. (Do I need Mexican or Italian?)

You slip the skins by bringing water to a boil, reduce to simmer, and drop the tomatoes in for about 60 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon, and pierce with a small knife. They will peel off. Cut out the stem and core if needed. Quarter, and you will see the seeds, remove if you don't like. They don't bother me, so I leave them. You can can at this point or you can simmer until thicker. I like to can or freeze plain and add the seasonings, peppers, or onions as I need them. Just be sure to add the salt and lemon or vinegar to each jar. Like I said the newer tomatoes don't have as much acid. I had some go bad about 15 years ago, because I did them the old way.

ETA: I just can mine whole and plain.