By Rebecca Goodsell, Sonoma County Master Gardener
Buyers said that they wanted good, fresh food. They mentioned the high costs of groceries. Sometimes concerns over food safety were raised. Many times the word “locavore” popped up…the desire to eat locally produced foodstuffs. And what could be more local than your own backyard kitchen garden, or as the French would have it, le potager.
So that was then, and this is now. What has happened to those seed packets and six-packs of tremulous green seedlings that came home with you? With water, sunshine and some organic fertilizer are you reaping all that vegetal deliciousness that was promised in the pretty pictures and has it ripened all at once? This cooler than normal summer in Sonoma County seems to have exacerbated the problem by delaying ripening of most summer vegetables until now!
September is the time for preserving Nature’s gifts. Many of you may have memories of hot Augusts and Septembers helping Mom and Grandmother work so hard to put up the tomatoes, peaches and pears, the string beans and other garden bounty. Those of you who weren’t so fortunate can read about it in Barbara Kingsolver’s chapter, “Life in a Red State (August)” in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2007). She also provides interesting recipes.
There are three traditional ways to preserve your produce: canning, freezing and drying. Tomatoes are great candidates for preservation, as they will taste far better than those store-bought specimens in winter, or the commercially canned alternatives. In fact, when choosing which vegetables to preserve, select the ones which just aren’t as tasty when purchased out of season.
| Canning For first-time canners, there is equipment to be purchased from the local hardware store (or borrowed from a friend). A note of caution: you must purchase new lids every season to insure the integrity of the seal. Also, discard any jars that have chipped rims.  When Susan Mall, of Eastside Farms in Healdsburg, roasts her tomatoes for sauce, she uses all varieties and colors. Setting the oven temperature to 400°, she slices them in half, drizzles olive oil over the lot and seasons with salt and pepper. A little sprinkle of fresh basil, and they roast until lightly golden. After processing the mixture through a food mill, she simmers the batch until thickened. Each quart received 2 Tbs. of bottled lemon juice and a sprig of basil. She cans her skinned Romas whole, just pitched into the jars. After your sauces or whole tomatoes are ready for processing, follow the directions religiously which are given in the publications listed in the Resources sidebar. Many food authorities recommend that the home canner make large batches at a time in a spirit of efficiency. But many of us, due to pressures of work and home or number of people in the household, would prefer smaller batches. There are recipes for small batch processes in half pint jars, using the boiling water bath canner. Note: for small batch canning, you do not need a special pot. A stock pot would be great, or an asparagus steamer, but the pot must have a lid. You do need the pot to be deep enough to cover the filled jars by a minimum of 1” of water. You also need some sort of rack on the bottom to keep the glass jars off of the canner bottom, but canning jar rings do the job nicely. If canning sounds daunting, there is always the freezer compartment. Now your only concern seems to be the configuration of container to use. | Food Preservation Resources
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Freezing
Choose your tomatoes for freezing as carefully as you did for the canning methods. Many Master Gardeners reported that they merely washed the fruit and put them whole onto a cookie sheet and froze them into lovely red baseballs. After the fruit was frozen, the baseballs were put into a plastic sack and left in the freezer until needed. Note: when defrosted, these frozen orbs are not going to have a texture suitable for a salad; use these for sauce, soup or an addition to the stewpot.
Other Master Gardeners put their cooked Early Girls and Celebrity varieties into various sized plastic boxes that come from the deli. A few use washed milk cartons, because they store so effectively. A Healdsburg Master Gardener swears by her San Marzano for their great production and fabulous thick sauce. She uses freezer bags.
Drying
The secret to successful drying is consistent temperature and air circulation. Note: have your drying tomatoes be a uniform size. Don’t mix your Romas with the Sun Golds.
If the weather report predicts a week of dry, warm (90° F) weather, you can use the power of the sun. Good directions for this can be found in the UCANR publication 8116, “Tomatoes: safe methods to store, preserve and enjoy”. Always cover the fruit with netting or cheesecloth to keep insects away. Otherwise, you need a dehydrator, which can be purchased at hardware or kitchen stores. Do not use the oven or the microwave. Storage of dried tomatoes is remarkably easy in sealed plastic bags or tightly closed glass jars. Store in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
A very pleasant and generous way to use up those tomatoes is by giving them away. Unlike the ubiquitous zucchini left surreptitiously on doorsteps, extra tomatoes are always welcome. A basket of tomatoes left by the mailbox will surely be empty by day’s end. The old-fashioned concept of bartering can be useful here. Common back in the day, more and more people are re-discovering it. Trade tomatoes for broccoli futures or for vegetables that didn’t do so well for you this year. Develop a relationship with your local bakery and trade tomatoes for tortes.
A Sebastopol Master Gardener hosts a tomato tasting at her home. Guests sample over twenty varieties and are encouraged to bring samples for their garden. Prizes for the largest, oddest and tastiest are awarded.
You can also give to those you don’t know, but care about their well-being. There are many places across the county that would be more than happy to receive your extra tomatoes, Here is a sampling of the agencies:
Petaluma Kitchen
301 Payran Road, Petaluma
778-6380
Elisha’s Pantry
1717 Yulupa Ave. Santa Rosa
Windsor Senior Center
9231 Foxwood Drive, Windsor
838-1250
Redwood Empire Food Bank
3320 Industrial Ave. Santa Rosa
523-7900
Farm to Pantry
Healdsburg
431-0425
Finally, you can harvest your last fruits for next year’s seeds. Many devoted gardeners swear that saved seeds have better germination rates and produce stronger plants. From a West County Master Gardener comes this voice of experience:
Squeeze the tomato pulp through a mesh strainer onto a sturdy paper towel. Distribute the seeds evenly around the paper. Write on each paper towel the variety and any meaningful comments like size of crop, tastiness etc.
Hang up to dry on a clothesline or lay across a hanger in a dry place. The juice will dry up, leaving the seeds ready for you to start the process all over again come Valentine’s Day.
©Sonoma County Master Gardeners