Last week, I monumentally lucked out. Heather and Steven from Little Acre Farmstead swapped me ten pounds of little tomatoes for an assortment of jam. I think it may well have been the best trade of my life. Admittedly, my bartering career is in its infancy. But still, I was tickled. Thing is, ten pounds of tiny tomatoes is a whole lot. So I had to get creative with my preservation techniques. Here’s what I did.
I froze enough to fill two small cookie sheets. This is the easiest method I know. There’s no prep, you just fill the sheet, pop them into the freezer and leave until solid. Once they turn into tomato marbles, funnel them into jars or zip-top bags and return them to the freezer.
They can be used in soups, stews, roasts and veggie scrambles. Someone also mentioned recently that preserving tomatoes like this makes them great for tomato cobbler (who was that? Remind me and I’ll link to you. It was Melissa from Bridgman Pottery! So pretty).
Next up is dehydrated tomatoes. You do need some additional equipment here, but I plunked down the cash for a dehydrator couple of years ago and have yet to regret it (though it is something of a space hog).
In addition to tomatoes, I use mine for peaches, lemons, limes and the occasional batch of jerky. This is the one 
I make these almost entirely so that I can make this zucchini noodle salad that Tea turned me on to a couple of years ago. They are also good for general snacking (like tomato candy!) and adding to things that have a bit of moisture (they do need to rehydrate a little once in food). You could also puree them into a tomato powder, should you ever need such a thing.
Roasted tomatoes. We’ve already talked about this one recently. Still, they’re worth the reminder. Add a handful of unpeeled garlic cloves and some fresh thyme. Or a few slivers of onions and some rosemary. Oregano is also good. However you make them, you won’t be sad that you did.
Here’s another option that I’ve mentioned in the past. Tomato jam. I loved how these little grape tomatoes worked in this recipe. The seeds are a bit smaller, which makes for a really nice texture. And they’re already so sweet that if I use them again in this application, I might just reduce the sugar a bit to compensate. Also, it’s worth noting that this time around, my yield was just three pints as opposed to the four and a half I got last year.
After I froze, dehydrated, roasted and jammed, I had about a pint of tomatoes left. Those became a small batch of refrigerator pickles. I actually took the time to slit, blanch (about 90 second dip in boiling water should do it) and peel all those teeny tomatoes so that they’d better absorb the brine. Luckily, when you’re working with just a single pint, it’s not too tedious.
The brine was 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup filtered water, 2 teaspoons pickling salt, and 2 teaspoons sugar. I added tiny pinches (no more than an 1/8 of a teaspoon each) of mustard seeds, coriander seeds and red chili flakes to the jar, along with two juniper berries. Pour the brine over the tomatoes. Tap to remove bubbles and add a bit more brine. Keep in the fridge for at least 48 hours before eating.
Unfortunately, these are too fragile for boiling water bath storage. They will dissolve into nothing in the heat of the canning pot.
Now, how do you like to preserve tiny tomatoes?
I have several pounds of spoon tomatoes, which are about the size of peas. I am at a complete loss of how to preserve them and really wish I had researched this earlier as I’m starting to drown in them. I had to pick them while many of them are still green and now They are turning red. Problem is they go from perfectly right to wrinkly and overripe very quickly and I need to deal with them before that happens.
Skillet tomato jam is always a good option. There are a couple recipes in the archives.
I have just picked a huge pan of tiny tomatoes from my garden this morning in the UK.
Going to freeze these.
I still have more growing as the weather has been so good it’s encouraging more to appear. I am going to roast these when ready to eat and some to freeze for later meals.
I’ve been picking raspberries daily since the start of August from a few canes in my garden and have filled 2 large Zippo bags.
Love your helpful ideas
How to make roasted tomatoes with oil and spices How do I dehydrate them without the actual dehydrator???????
You either need a very low oven (one that can maintain 175-190F) or you need a dehydrator.
Years ago I had a pretty book of recipes and household hints and it had a recipe for roasting cherry tomatoes in a pint or quart jar. Each jar had a clove of garlic and some basil and I think a little oil drizzled but I’m not sure. You left the lid off and roasted them in the oven at ? temp…not real high as I remember. The tomatoes made their own juice naturally. You took the jars out of the oven and cooled them a bit, put lids on and cool. They were not canned. They were way to save cherry tomatoes before they went bad. I did it just as the tomatoes were looking iffy. It really worked very well for that purpose and they were quite tasty. I can’t find the recipe in my collection any more, and I kind of left it behind. Now that I have been reminded of it, I will use it again. I think the book might have been called The Country Store or something close to that. I’m just sharing here. Would you have any experience with this technique? SallyC
I have no experience with this technique, but roasted cherry tomatoes are always delicious.
Its been a lot of years since Amy posted. BUT Im going to give it a try. The recipe she found with the cherry toms sound really good. she called it cherry tom sauce/butter. I think I NEED that recipe is your still on here Amy could you please send it or post it for me? Thank you!
If you mix equal amounts water and tomato powder you get tomato paste. It can be a little chunky if the powder isn’t totally pulverized but is very tasty! And it’s the perfect thing when you only need a tablespoon or two of paste. I hate opening a whole can for that.
I froze 1 bag of cherry tomatoes from my garden this year, after reading this article. I’ve just popped them into a crock-pot chili. I am so looking forward to having my garden tomatoes in December – thanks for sharing this tip!
I’m going to make the tomato jam. Do I use fresh lime juice or from a bottle?
…oops, please disregard this question. I read the answer in your canning FAQs. Bottled lime juice it is! 🙂
I made the cherry tomato pickles. They were delicious!! But I was wondering how long do they last?
They’ll last several months in the fridge.
When I was growing them I would put in 2 plants to get enough to can during the growing season. I would can between 12 & 24 1/2 pint jars of them for pizza toppings. I just loved them that way. I would also can about 50 to 60 jars of Romas and a couple jars of tomato juice with 1/2 the salt required. These went straight into the fridge after canning anyway.
The tiny tomatoes that gave up their juice I used in my cooking along with the juice from canning Bell Peppers to add flavor to my spaghetti sauce. It is amazing the flavor of the juice that comes out of those tiny tomatoes and the skins and pulp make great toppings for my pizzas. So Tasty. Yum.
LadyDawn
Is it possible to can roasted tomatoes? Or must they be store long term through freezing?
You can roast your tomatoes for canning, but only if you do it without oil or additional ingredients like garlic or onions.
I love the idea to roast/jam the tomatoes, but the links for the recipes are broken.
Oops, so sorry about that, Megan! Looks like we missed something in the transition to the new site. They should be fixed now!
I have a cheery tomatoe plant that every year grows to monsterous size and finally started to dehydrate them. What is the best way to can the dehydrated tomatoes? Should I still pack them in oil then seal them in the water bath or just toss them in the jar? I am new to canning so please excuse me if this is a silly question.
I have water bathed pickled grape tomatoes. they held there form and came out great. I opened a jar and drained the juice off, put some olive oil on the tomatoes and the put a little of the juice back opn them and served them over vegi pasta and they were great. the trick to the tomatoes holding form is to poke a few holes in each tomato ( I used a hem pulled and the holes were not to deep and not to big) you can use a sewing needle if you want. I made pints of these and let me tell you I will not be doing it again real soon the hole poking is really time consuming. But it worked!!! the dI did them in the water bath for minutes. If anyone is interested I will post the recipe, please let me know. I am also on Face book quite often under ( teetee spurling). thank you all for all the good info!
Would you be so kind as to send me the recipe for pickled grape tomatoes and directions for water bath canning. I have so many tomatoes, I’m running out of space to keep them on my kitchen counter. Thanks, Louise
This post is how I found Food in Jars a year ago, and now I have a massive bowl of cherries, yellow pears, sungolds and juliettes to do something with. I found a recipe for pickled cherry tomatoes with rosemary, and then I’m going to dehydrate some and roast the rest.
I’ve used a couple of these recipes with some sun gold tomatoes from the garden (and we have tons more ripening!). The dried sun golds are like savory raisins! I’ve been snacking on them all day. I’m roasting some more of them in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic cloves and a bit of oregano. They will be frozen and eaten this winter when Portland’s rain and clouds make us pine for colorful food.
We received a food dehydrator as a gift a few years ago and run it from June through September almost continuously making mostly zucchini chips (super tasty) and dried cherry tomatoes. The dried tomatoes are a flavor boost for almost any soup, stew, chili, or casserole and are well appreciated year round.
My meager crop of tomatoes doesn’t leave me many to preserve, although I do love the idea of tomato pickles! Maybe I’ll try that when my kids grow up and I have time to peel a pint of tomatoes. 🙂 I do buy 40 lbs. of roma tomatoes to roast and freeze every fall, though, and I am so happy to have them all winter.
Just wanted to add that lightly salting and dehydrating tomatoes that are subpar in taste really does the job to fix them up. I got a batch of on sale grocery store maters and even those tasted good done up as tomato chips.
I wish I’d found this site last week. After a hard frost earlier this week I spent an hour cleaning up the garden yesterday… must have picked up and tossed a full five-gallon pail of waste grape tomatoes…. from a single plant! I think that if I had gotten to them earlier I could have at least frozen them… I’d never thought of that before (although my mother’s recipe for tomato jam is a favorite, I haven’t made any for a couple of years).
Won’t green cherry tomatoes ripen indoors? Large tomatoes do.
I made a pint of pickled cherry tomatoes with my overload of very end of season fruit, and just ate a few on a cheese sandwich. They are heavenly! Thank you for posting the recipe; it is wonderful.
Any ideas for the hundreds of green cherry tomatoes that didn’t ripen in the extra short Portland, Oregon summer?
Pickle them!!! Yummy little things to just pop in your mouth as a snack or on an antipasto tray. If they are a little larger, one can’t beat fried green tomatoes!
Karen,
I know this comment is 3 years old, but I thought I would comment in case anyone else runs into it like I did 🙂
I also live in Oregon and have tons of tomatoes (cherry) that had to be picked while still green. I found that if I put them in a container in a window they ripen with no change in flavor from the ones that ripened on the vine. 🙂
Good luck,
Cindy
I am so glad I’m not the only one coming to this thread late. Cindy, thanks for the info, I might end up with quite a few green cherry tomatoes soon.
JamieInWyoming
I have two sheets of yellow, purple, orange, and red tiny tomatoes in the oven right now! Toss with equal parts sugar and salt (about 2 tablespoons each per pound), olive oil, and dried oregano. Roast at 250 degrees for two hours, and serve warm over goat cheese and bread. Um…Yum. Freezes perfectly! Before serving, fill a one cup container and hide in the freezer. There is no such thing as “leftovers.”
Thanks for giving me some more ideas! I’m pulling five-ten pounds a week out of my garden. 🙂
Mmm, sounds delicious!
We have an explosion of cherry tomatoes that I didn’t want to blanch and peel to can and preserve. Your idea of roasting tomatoes and freezing them is just what I was looking for, sounds really delish. Thanks!
I have an overflow of yellow cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse, this year i am trying pickled tomatoes, using an old recipe for pickled eggs from my father in laws’ mother. (I also made a few ajustments, like adding homemade candied jalapenos for just a touch of sweet and spicy!)
Thanks for the great tomato tips. The garden is exploding with cherry tomatoes right now. Can’t wait to roast some. Think I’ll make a foccacia bread to go with. Yum!
These are great ideas, definitely to be shared with my readers. Tomato jam is underused and underrated! Thanks for the tips!
Each year I do all of the above…plus…I have a steamer juicer that makes quick work of juicing these babies…then the pulp, skin and all, goes into my green tomato relish to add flavor. The juice is incredibly sweet and strong tomato flavor. I drink it hot, cold, and put it in soups all winter.
I have a garden center…and always have hundreds of a variety of cherry tomato plants left over…and plant them up in gallon containers so they end their lives with dignity…love and peace…lynnann