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?
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I need help…I am wanting to preserve a salsa that I make but I don’t know how. I do not use fresh tomatoes but Hunts canned tomatoes, fresh jalapenos, cilantro, onion and garlic. Would I make salsa like I normally would, put in in jars and do bath for about 25 minutes? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Tks
Absolutely, you can do it that way. But remember those tomatoes are heavily salted so skip any additional salt. Check the time though pints usually take 45 minutes to process. If you like your salsa a little thicker add some tomato paste.
Pickled tomatoes, just exactly what I was looking for! I asked a Russian friend, because they pickle almost everything, but she couldn’t help me out. I think treating sweet small tomatoes like mustard fruits would be also a nice idea for preserving them.
I like put a thin slice of garlic below the tomatoes while dehydrating, it adds a nice flavor. And I love thyme, so I usually lay out a bed of it and put the tomatoes on the thyme.
For the tomato jam, try adding some raspberry puree (sieved to remove seeds), it emphasizes the fruity flavor of the tomato pretty well.
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Fantastic post. I have 5 cherry and 3 yellow pear tomato plants that are filling every container in my fridge with little balls of happiness. We’ve already dried a bunch, but tomato jam is next on the list!
Last year I had too many pear tomatoes so I made tomato juice out of them. During the long winter I had bright yellow tomato juice to start my day with. Yellow pear tomatoes make a sweet tasting juice.
I just found your site via preserving the harvest on facebook. I have been looking for ideas on what to do with my cherry tomatoes for the past week and then I read your post!! THANK YOU. Can’t wait to keep reading and see what other tips i can find
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
[...] to add a vibrant component to tickle the palate. The small tomatoes preserved in vinegar at Food in Jars inspired me to treat tomatoes as fruits and preserve them the same way as mustard fruits. Mustard [...]
These are great ideas, definitely to be shared with my readers. Tomato jam is underused and underrated! Thanks for the tips!
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!
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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!)
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!
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[...] about making tomato sauce or relish involving complicated sterilisation rituals, I found this lovely website and a description of freezing small tomatoes. This sounds too good to be true! The homely side of [...]
[...] but serviceable nonetheless), spread it with Cypress Grove Chevre and topped it all with the pickled grape tomatoes I made back in August (there are just a few left and I’ve been carefully rationing them). I didn’t have [...]
Any ideas for the hundreds of green cherry tomatoes that didn’t ripen in the extra short Portland, Oregon summer?
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.
[...] more ideas, check out “Five Ways to Preserve Small Tomatoes” over at Food in Jars. Share this:Like this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]
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).
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.
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[...] Five Ways To Preserve Small Tomatoes | Food in JarsAug 10, 2011 … Once they turn into tomato marbles, funnel them into jars or zip-top bags and return them to the freezer. frozen tomatoes. They can be used in … Comments Off [...]
[...] about making tomato sauce or relish involving complicated sterilisation rituals, I found this lovely website and a description of freezing small tomatoes. This sounds too good to be true! The homely side of [...]
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.
[...] pointed us toward Food in Jars’ roundup of ways to preserve small tomatoes — think freezing, dehydrating, pickling, and more — but what really caught our eye was [...]
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.
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[...] in on my favorite lady with 14 kids who is selling 25 lb boxes of heirloom tomatoes for $10;) Love this post with 5 ways to preserve small tomatoes (I already popped some in the freezer after the slaughter [...]
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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.
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.
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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!
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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.
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