I normally don't freeze them but cook them into spaghetti sauce, salsa and this year trying out a veggie tomato soup. As I have a very large stock pot I'd blanch enough tomatoes to fill a gallon ice cream bucket and throw them into the freezer until I had enough to fill another one plus some. Have made enough soup to last me a couple years so on to adding to my spaghetti sauce group.

But I also what I call fast freeze my peppers, carrots, celery,green beans, onions, strawberries and raspberries on a cookie sheet until frozen, then move them to a freezer bag, suck out the air using a plastic straw as I don't have one of those fancy machines that do it for you. When I go to make up a batch of soup for winter, I just have to pull out whatever veggie I want and its already chopped up so half the work is done for me. I also make enough soup to fill 2 half gallon freezer containers so I have one for that week and put the other one in the freezer for later. I'm up to 5 soups I make up for winter time.

My favorite way to freeze tomatoes is to wash and core them, put in my blender and then put in bags. They are all ready to put into whatever I am making. Sometimes I will throw onions, peppers or whatever in the blender with the tomatoes.

I will be doing just this very shortly. My sauce has been cooking slowly all night and is ready to be jared and processed. In the meantime I discovered another bag of tomatoes sitting on top of something that I lost or they too would have been made into sauce yesterday. So today I will freeze them for later use.

I washed my tomatoes and put them into the freezer. When I get them out, I will run some hot water over them and slip the skins off, cut out the stem end, and they are ready to pop into the stew.

I wash and dry my whole tomatoes and freeze them on a cookie sheet, then put them in a basket to keep in the freezer. Run hot water over them for a few seconds and the skins come off. They are not good to use as fresh tomatoes, but work well anywhere you would use stewed tomatoes.

Wish I had more freezer space....

Watson

I woke up this morning to a big tub of tomatoes that need processing. I thought I'd come here for some ideas and you all didn't disappoint...thanks! I like the idea of roasting them first, if there's time. I think it would add another layer of flavor. If no time, then just freezing them makes it quick and easy. I'm off to the kitchen!

~ C

I do the same as QuiltE, core and freeze whole.

I do slip the skins off once they start to defrost. Then I uses as needed for my recipe. Generally it is spaghetti sauce, but I will use them in soups too.

Last year I got about 50 pounds of cherry tomatoes and mini peppers. I cut the tops off the peppers as that is where most the seeds are, then I cooked them with the whole cherry tomatoes and made a sauce. I froze it in 2-4 cup containers. Used it in soups, spaghetti sauce and stews over the winter.

OK...so I had breakfast and some time to think about it. I'm going to dehydrate my tomatoes instead of freezing them this time. I love the idea of freezing, but I have no more room in my freezer. :( I like dried tomatoes too. They're almost as easy, just core, cut an X on the bottom and dip into boiling water to remove the skins. Place on dehydrator trays and wait. That's it.

~ C

I put fresh tomatoes in a food processor until rough cut and then freeze. I can stack a pile of vacuum freezer bags on a shelf in the freezer. I use them for any food I would use canned tomatoes to make.