Try roasting them with some other veggies. 75% toms, 25% other things you like.
It concentrates the flavor and reduces the water content. 250-ish for two hours-ish.
(personal preference how concentrated one likes)
-I think a recipe was posted here recently.

We have been have BLT-PF's (Pesto, Fetta) on focaccia. Smashed like a panini.
-out of B and L but still yum.

I dehydrate tomato slices, chunks and puree. It's absolutely amazing how many you can stuff into a canning jar, so it's a great space saver compared to home-canning.

Because I remove the skins before dehydrating them, I also dehydrate the skins separately until crispy dry and store them in a canning jar with an air-tight lid. When I need some tomato powder I'll use my coffee/spice mill and pulverize the dried tomato skins to a powder.

I never purchase tomato paste or tomato sauce because I make it with tomato powder. I also use tomato powder to make tomato juice, pizza and pasta sauce, and in a pinch I'll use it to make bbq sauce and ketchup.....

-Grainlady

Here's a tomato sauce recipe our family really likes and I freeze it, not can it. It seems silly to add canned tomato paste when we have such a bounty of fresh tomatoes but it thickens it enough to avoid that watery texture. Just be sure to add it towards the end of the cooking period, not at the beginning.

TOMATO SAUCE PROVENCAL (about 8 cups)

6 lbs. fresh tomatoes
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
5 medium garlic cloves, mashed or minced
3 1-inch-long pieces of orange peel without the white
2 sprigs fresh parsley
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
1 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh basil leaf or 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. ground coriander seed
1/4 tsp. celery seed
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Plunge tomatoes into boiling water for a few seconds and remove skins. Core and chop pulp coarsely, if using fresh tomatoes.

Heat oil in heavy pot; add onion and cook slowly about 15 minutes, until onion is transparent. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Break up tomatoes as they cook.

Remove sauce from heat and add tomato paste. Simmer for an additional half hour. Remove parsley, bay leaf and orange peel. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cool and then freeze in portions suitable for your family's use.

Note: you can also substitute 3 28-ounce cans of tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes.

I posted KatieC's roasted tomato soup recipe on another thread, it freezes well and is delicious to just eat. It's very similar to sleevendog's roasted tomato instructions:

Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup
Recipe By :Katie
12 tomatoes -- *see Note
2 carrots -- cut in 1" pieces
1 large onion -- quartered
2 whole heads garlic -- peeled (or more, to taste)
olive oil
2 cups chicken broth -- (or 3)

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil -- (or 1 Tbsp. dried)
Core tomatoes and cut in half. Place, cut side up, on foil covered cookie sheet with carrots, onion and garlic. Brush with olive oil. Bake at 400F for about an hour, or until vegies are roasted and a little blackened. Place in a large saucepan with the chicken broth and basil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Blend with a stick blender (or in small batches in a blender) until almost smooth. To can: Process in a pressure canner, pints for 60 min. and quarts for 70 min.For dial gauge canners use 11 pounds pressure at 0-2000 ft., 12 lbs. at 2001-4000 ft., 13 lbs. at 4001-6000 ft. and 14 lbs. above 6000 ft. For weighted gauge canners use 10 lbs. pressure at 0-1000 ft., and 15 lbs. over 1000 ft.
*Note: These measurements are approximate...I use whatever it takes to cover the cookie sheet. This makes 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of soup. Cream may be added to taste when the soup is served.

I like mine with the cream added, but Elery likes his without.

Annie

I have so few tomatoes right now that I have just been eating them right off the vine. If I had more, I would be putting them on sandwiches and in salads. I only grow indeterminate tomatoes, and so they do not all get ripe at the same time, and I never have a large quantity at once.

Are you growing determinate tomatoes? I have never tried growing those, but I am beginning to think that they might be better producers, since people seem to get large crops from them, and I never get that much. I do like that my season lasts for several months, once the plants start producing, however.

I buy and use tomato powder, and so if I had too many tomatoes, I would want to dehydrate them and also make powder. Have you tried making sun-dried tomatoes? The ones I buy at TJ's are packed in oil, but I do not know how to make them. I like adding them to salad dressings that I puree.

Lars

Roasting does sound good. I will try that.

I don't have a dehydrater but people do rave about them. Must admit I have never heard of tomato powder.

I am going to try that tomato sauce recipe and maybe the soup to!

I have never heard of determinate or indeterminate tomato plants. I searched but neither description seems to fit. So I don't know what I have, lol.

I am always learning things on this forum!

Here's a description of determinate and indeterminate tomatoes for you to browse through. We like to grow indeterminate heirlooms. While we don't get 100s at the same time there's enough ripening at one time to keep me busy putting them up.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomatoes - Horticuliture Magazine

I second the recommendation for roasting tomatoes. I roast just tomatoes in a pan very lightly brushed with oil until they are slightly browned, put them through my tomato press and can the resulting sauce with only salt and lemon juice added. I then use the sauce in numerous ways throughout the winter. I love the flavor roasting gives the tomatoes, and it makes fantastic pizza sauce. Freezing works as well.

Forgot to add that Mark Bittman published a recipe for tomato jam a couple of years ago that is FANTASTIC. It is a savory jam, great on sandwiches, with cheese and crackers, etc. YUM.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Jam

This post was edited by mabeldingeldine on Sun, Aug 25, 13 at 18:09

There are many possibilities but the underlying principle is to use tomatoes extravagantly at this time of year. Use them where you would normally use canned or supermarket tomatoes. Use luxurious quantities. Have them in appetizers and snacks and garnishes in which you would otherwise not.

All of this may seem self-evident but it is not when you spend a large part of the year waiting for this season. We need to get out of the mindset of miserliness temporarily.

Jim

I've made this soup from Epicurious several times this summer already. The combination of orange and tomato is unexpected, amazing and delicious. I'm looking forward to trying Ruthanna's sauce recipe soon because it calls for many of the same flavors.

I make the soup as per instructions except I blend it to make it smooth before adding the rice to cook.

Here is a link that might be useful: Provencal Tomato Soup with Rice

You will have better roasted tomatoes if you dehydrate them a little first. This way they are less watery.

dcarch

So glad to hear that tomatoes elsewhere are coming in "fast and furious." We lost most of our main crop tomatoes to some kind of blight. The final insult was when a chipmunk ate one of the few survivors just after first blush:)

That said, I have ulcers from eating a plethora of those stinkin' little cherry and grape tomatoes. Very little control in the garden. We ending up using Smitten Kitchen's Slow Roasted Tomatoes (Grape) as a successful guideline to clear the counters a bit.

Although I've been chopping and adding them to brown rice for lunch, I'm still eating them like M & Ms too:)

Nothing like those heirlooms though!

Cathy in SWPA

Here is a link that might be useful: Smitten Kitchen

I am doing "drive by tomato-ing" and leaving bags and baskets filled with tomatoes on friends front porches. We are overwhelmed here too!

Alexa

Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

They are so good, no need to cook them or too much dressing.

dcarch

As Jim said, we eat tomatoes every day when it's tomato season wait all year to make some things with garden tomatoes, like the two salads in the link below.

We keep a container of sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and green peppers marinating in Italian dressing in the fridge during July and August and keep replenishing the ingredients as we eat them.

BLTs for breakfast, turkey, avocado and tomato sandwiches, wedged tomatoes stuffed with chicken salad, chunked tomatoes dressed with dark brown sugar and basalmic vinegar, wedge salads with sungold tomatoes and blue cheese dressing, fresh tomato and crabmeat sauce with Brie cheese served over pasta, tomatoes wrapped in bacon and grilled, candied tomatoes cooked whole in a skillet, and as they say at auctions - other items too numerous to mention.

When we're overflowing, I make and freeze tomato sauce and tomato-basil butter, our neighborhood co-op cooks and cans enough ketchup to last until next year and uses some for beef vegetable soup to freeze.

I love tomato season and will be sad when it's over.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato salads

We have a plethera of tomatoes at this time, plus all the sudden green beans have taken off too!
Have made the roasted tomato soup, and a few BLT's. Hubby wont eat raw tomatoes, he doesnt know what he is missing.
Yesterday we roasted 2 pans of tomatoes, onions and garlic brushed with olive oil on the smoker. Roasted down to 2-1/2 gallon bags which will get frozen for later use of soups. The roasting smells so good.
Love this time of the year when the garden is full of fresh veggies and rapsberry's too!

I grew mostly indeterminate heirlooms this year. They don't produce all at once, so I've had the crop fairly steady since late June.

In my hands at least, the heirlooms I selected aren't particularly prolific, but they make up for it in intense flavor. Best flavored tomatoes this year for me were Marianna's Peace and Stump of the World. Black Cherry was very prolific but the flavor wasn't exceptional. Black Krims were pretty good, as were Cherokee Purple.

The last few? Roasted, peeled and smashed them, got rid of the seeds, and voila! pizza sauce. Exceptionally good with fresh mozerella and fresh basil. I guess it was a fresh pizza!

DH determined that we have determinate tomato plants.

Pizza sounds good.

We are in WNY and have had a few bad years for tomatoes.

I will admit I actually don't like raw tomatoes. I do eat some because they are healthy. I would rather have my tomatoes in salsa or sauce. Anyone make salsa?

Unfortunately I can't grow tomatoes where I live. Combination of location and wildlife...mostly wildlife.

However, I am getting my annual three bushels next week so will be busy with Tomato Sauce, Stewed Tomatoes and Chile Sauce.

Something I truly look forward to each year.

"Anyone make salsa?"

I think Annie does. ;-)

Jim

Yes, indeed, I do make salsa. Search for "Annie's Salsa" and you'll find mine, LOL.

However, you said you don't can, and mine is a canning recipe. I'll post it anyway, but it makes quite a lot and I don't think you could eat that much up. It does freeze well, I'm told, although I've never tried it.

ANNIE'S SALSA
8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained
2 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper
3 - 5 chopped jalapenos
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
16 oz. tomato sauce
16 oz tomato paste

Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process pints in a boiling water bath 15 minutes.

Makes 6 pints

Annie

More tomatoes can be consumed if they are eaten at one of the three meals at which they are seldom served. That would be breakfast.

How about baked tomatoes as a side for an egg dish? Sounds good to me. Other ideas?

Jim

Tomatoes are a regular with our summer breakfasts.

Stewed with scrambled eggs, baked with a bit of Parmesan as a side with eggs, toasted tomato and peameal bacon sandwiches, plain sliced, tomato and cheese tart, sliced on top of a fritata.

I love my tomatoes!!!

Annie, I just found your recipe over on the harvest forum. I'm going to try it but how "hot" is it? I only like mild salsa. I was thinking of leaving out the jalapenos or is that a big no-no? Use Kosher salt instead of canning salt?

It is not hot as I am a "wuss" when it comes to heat. Depending on the size and heat of your peppers, three jalapenos (or fewer if they are very hot) in 6 pints is more than enough for me and Elery just adds peppers to his when he eats it to make it hot enough.

Don't go on taste right after simmering it, though, it sits in the jars and gets hotter for a couple of weeks.

You can leave them out completely or use less/fewer, just don't increase the vegetables without increasing the vinegar.

You can also use lemon or lime juice in place of the vinegar, they are both more acidic than cider vinegar. And be sure any vinegar used is at least 5% acidity, some of it isn't. I like cider vinegar but others have used red wine vinegar or whatever they like, or a combination of vinegar and citrus juice.

It's a recipe that just went crazy, I don't know how or why, but it's everywhere and has generated more posts on Gardenweb than nearly any other recipe, even got me "featured" last year, LOL.

Use kosher salt or canning salt, it's only for flavor as there is not enough for any type of preservation. The recipe I posted above is the most recent, after some adjustments in the acidity as outlined by new standards at the Center for Home Food Preservation. It tested safely with 2/3 cup of vinegar by the extension service, but the additional cider vinegar makes little difference in the flavor and better safe than sorry, given the varying acid contents of home grown tomatoes.

Annie

Hmmmm....We've had a measly half dozen Stupices so far (though I am tickled that my earliest tomatoes are from my own seed). Considering the early spring we had, gardens seem 'eh' this year. I have high hopes that we won't have an early hard freeze.

When we finally do harvest enough to do anything with, I'll make the same old salsa I've made for thirtymumblemumble years. a chunky ketchup-ey chili sauce and plain chopped tomatoes. I'll also can my excess peppers with tomatoes...very handy for spaghetti sauce. chili etc.

After that, we'll probably be into the house-ripened ones (assuming we get them out of the hoop houses before the 'big freeze'). They'll go into the roasted tomato soup. If there are a lot, I'll sauce them and simmer down to paste and then dehydrate in 'plops'. If there's realllly a lot, I'll make some some seafood sauce, chipotle ketchup and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving has a harissa sauce and a creole sauce that are pretty good. Odd and ends will be roasted with lots of garlic and peppers and frozen for future sauces.

The excess cherry tomatoes will be dehydrated, cut in half w/ cut side sprinkled with s&p, granulated garlic and maybe some oregano. I use the heck out of those over the winter.

Lars, I have found one determinate tomato (Legend) that we like...mostly it's the indeterminates that grow best and taste best for me. But our climates are so different....

We'll see how the rest of the year goes....I cut my plants from 50+ to 30-ish.

Here's an update on my tomatoes that were slow to grow in August. I've had very few tomatoes until this month, but now I am getting more than I can consume and have been making a lot of salads and some salsa with them. I never have enough to can any of them, however, and I won't freeze them either. They make a nice addition to my lunch sandwiches, but I especially like them in cucumber salads. I don't have any basil left (I finished it off a couple of weeks ago), and so I cannot make Caprese salad, but I put feta cheese in my cucumber salad, and I like that as much. Kevin is not interested in the tomato salads that I have been making.

I'm not sure that I am thinning my Big Boy plant as much as I should - it keeps trying to spread out all over the place, but I am afraid that it will just make stems and leaves and not very many tomatoes. I am reluctant to cut many of the stems because they are so thick and strong, but I don't know whether this is any indication that they will support tomatoes. This is the first time that I have grown a Big Boy, but I may plant it again in the future. I wish tomatoes would grow for me in the summer, but they seem to prefer the winter.

Lars

Jealous of you having fresh tomatoes. So your season ends because of too much heat. No fear of upcoming frosts like we get in Sept. I usually start to pinch back and prune if i want my fruit to hurry up. If you have the support room, i might just let them continue on. If running out of support, they might bend or break, cutting off supply. But just that branch dies. Pretty tough plants.
Not sure where the flavor combinations come from. I also prefer fetta with cucumber, mozz with basil, dill with salmon, tarragon with steak...(all fresh tomato dishes/sauces/salsas)

This winter i've preferred the roasted tomatoes that i froze over all the others. Roasted with onions and garlic. I just have a dozen or so left. Still good fresh flavor.

I still have frozen tomatoes. DH has been using them to make chili.

Lars why won't you freeze tomatoes?

Debra, I do not freeze tomatoes because I prefer to use canned ones, and I tend to lose things in the freezer. However, if I ever had enough tomatoes, I might roast them and then freeze them. I only have four plants, and one of them is not doing very much. Unfortunately, I lost the label for that plant, but if I plant in the future, I will probably continue with the three that I have now that are doing well. Because we've had no rain, we've had a lot of sun, and that has probably helped the plants. They do not die from heat because our summers are not hot - I have no idea why they do not like the summer. Perhaps I do not water/feed them enough in the summer.

Lars

I still have lots of canned tomatoes left, including tomato marmalade, KatieC's Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup, some of Readinglady's Ragu and Chase's chile sauce.

Right now it's snowing and 26F, with another "artic blast" projected for next week so I figure it'll be about 6 months before any tomatoes worth eating fresh appear here. (sigh) I refuse to eat "store bought" tomatoes, I'll just wait, thanks.

So besides Big Boy, what are the varieties doing well for you, Lars?

Annie

Annie, the Roma tomato plant is doing very well, and today I made an open faced sandwich with some rye bread that I had made (I'll post that recipe later because I really like it) and some Beecher's Flagship Handmade Cheese, which Kevin bought because he had had some when he was in Seattle meeting with Amazon. The label says Tri-Cut Cheese, but I don't know what that means. It reminds me of Cabot extra sharp Cheddar, but it slices more easily. I put slices of Roma tomatoes on a slice of rye bread, then a layer of sliced cheese and a sprinkle of cayenne. I'll have to make this for Kevin when he comes home, even though he says he does not like tomatoes. The slices of tomatoes did cook, and so I think he may like it.

The cherry tomatoes are doing well also, but I tend to eat them like candy, although some of them make it into salads. They are very sweet.

I have a fourth plant that is making tomatoes that look sort of like heirloom tomatoes, but some of the tomatoes are starting to split before they get ripe, and so I do not have high hopes for this one, and it does not have a label. It is in a pot with a Thai chili pepper and the remains of a basil plant that I harvested a couple of weeks ago. I'll post a picture of it later, but I warn you that it is not photogenic.

I am beginning now to think that my tomatoes were a good idea after all, even though it has taken a very long time for them to make fruit. Kevin thinks the plants are ugly, but then he doesn't like tomatoes anyway! He does like cooked tomatoes, and so that might turn him around.

I put more stakes around the Big Boy, but it is making very strong stems and doesn't need that much support.

Lars

Lars, if you decide to try tomatoes again, it might be good to try a "determinate" variety. The plants are shorter and bushier, although they tend to have a lot of tomatoes all at once. The "indeterminates" get tall and leggy if given the chance, but have tomatoes throughout a longer period of time. I plant both, so I have a lot of tomatoes at once for canning from the determinates, and fresh tomatoes to eat throughout the season from the indeterminates.

I had some of the Great White tomatoes grow well over 5 feet tall, I got tomato cages, then stakes, and finally just tied them to the deck rails, they went everywhere. They weren't pretty plants at all, but the tomatoes were exceptional.

Out at the farm I let the tomatoes go where ever they wish, I just mulch them well so they sit on the straw/mulch, I don't stake or cage any of them. It's a tomato jungle out there!

Annie

Annie

Thanks, Annie. I might try some determinate tomatoes next spring and see what happens, but I have very little experience with canning - basically only with fig preserves.

Here is the rye bread recipe I made that I think is very good with tomatoes:

Rye Bread with Caraway and Fennel

1-1/2 pound loaf (approx.):

2 tbsp caraway seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1-1/2 cups water
2 tbsp onion powder (can substitute 1/4 cup pureed onion)
1-1/8 cups dark rye flour
1-7/8 cups bread flour
2 tbsp semolina flour
2 tbsp VWG
2 tbsp brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp IDY

Grind caraway seeds and fennel seeds in a coffee grinder that is used only for spices. Add the seeds to the water (I use a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup) and microwave for one minute. Stir and microwave 20 more seconds, and then add the onion powder (or pureed onion if you are using that). If using pureed onion instead of onion powder, you can reduce the water by 2 tablespoons. Allow the ground seeds to sit in the warm water until the water has cooled to about 100 degrees.

Meanwhile, add the flours, wheat gluten, sugar, and salt to the bread machine pan and stir gently with a plastic spatula. Add the oil to this mixture and stir slightly. Insert pan into the machine and lock in place.

When the seeds have soaked for at least 15 minutes, add the seed/water mixture to the bread machine pan. Close the lid and add the yeast to the yeast dispenser. Set the machine for small loaf (1-1/2 pounds), medium crust, and regular loaf, or you can use the pizza setting if you want to shape the loaf yourself. Start the machine.

When the bread is done, remove from pan and rub all sides with butter, and then allow the loaf to cool on a wire rack before storing it in a bag. Wait at least one hour before slicing.

These directions are for the Panasonic bread machine that I have, and so you may have to adjust them if you have a different machine. The bread has a very intense flavor, and so you can cut back on the seeds/onion, but I like with a strong flavor. It is not as versatile as plain bread, but it makes great sandwiches.

Grainlady gave me the suggestion to soak the seeds first, so that they will not cut the gluten strands, I think. Anyway, the loaf came out nice and light - not dense at all.

Lars

I've had success with brown breads recently. Good rich flavor. I've got it down for a light loaf or double the grains for a heavy loaf that slices very thin for smoked salmon, etc.

This is a good recipe for fresh tomatoes slices. Tomato and goat cheese tart. Any cheese would be good me thinks. Fresh tomato flavor but cooked. I would probably just cut in squares and not waste the off cuts...maybe roll in the corners.

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato tarts

Thanks, Lars, I like the addition of the onion and the fennel seeds, I'm definitely going to try that. It would make a very good tomato sandwich, but I think it would also be good with corned beef or pastrami and some good mustard, yum!

Annie

The tomato tarts look good, and I might use pizza dough instead of the puff pastry, since I do not have that in my freezer - yet. I like the idea of making very small pizzas, and I've not tried that yet.

Annie, I think you will like the bread if you like intense flavors like I do! Kevin likes it also, and it makes sandwiches or whatever you make with it that much more flavorful. Last night I had it with a spicy lentil soup that I made that also contained a bit of fennel but also had coriander in it, and a slight blend of Indian and Mediterranean spices, none of them overwhelming. I normally make turkey or turkey and ham sandwiches, which do not have as much flavor as corned beef or pastrami, but I think it would work well with that also. Turkey is fairly bland, and so it needs a flavorful bread, I think.

Lars

Lars, I like some intense flavors, although hot peppers and spices are a bit too intense for me. Your lentil soup sounds like something Elery would enjoy a lot, he likes all the Indian/Middle Eastern spices very much.

I think I'd like the bread a lot, as soon as we're done with the last batch I made, I think I'm going to make yours.

Annie