Peeling Tomatoes

Just in case you missed the memo, here a very easy way to peel tomatoes for freezing or canning or just for the treat of having peeled tomatoes on your salad.

Start by scoring the top of your tomatoes.

Place them all in a bowl and cover them with boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes.

Pour off the water, and cover them with cold water for the same amount of time.
You will be amazed at how easily the skin comes off.

As you may have noticed (or not) we do not digest tomato skins very well and when you can or freeze fresh tomatoes the skins tend to get tougher and separate anyway.

Now those tomatoes are ready to freeze on a cookie sheet whole, just like berries.
Or canned into stewed tomatoes.

Saving Strawberries

We are lucky to still have lots of beautiful strawberries at our farmer's markets.
When my brother brought me some strawberries he had dried, I was amazed at how tasty they were. We immediately went to our farmer's market and bought a flat.
We dried half of them and froze the rest.

To dry them we simply cut them in half and laid them on the trays cut side up.

They took about a day to dry and made the house smell heavenly !!
It's surprising how much they shrink.

The dried ones are great as a snack, in hot cereal, granola, baked goods, trail mix.

To freeze the rest I line a baking sheet with waxed paper and cut them in half and then in half again. I cover them with another piece of waxed paper and freeze them over night. Then move them into a zip lock freezer bag for easy storage.
I use them in jams, desserts and smoothies.

This is great way to take advantage of fruit in season !!