So you want to can tomatoes or tomato sauce, but you only get a couple tomatoes at a time. What can you do?

It’s never enough to can even a single can of tomatoes at a time and by the time you get more, they are likely to go bad, right? Well, yes and no.

As long as your tomatoes are destined for the canner (not fresh eating) FREEZE THEM! Yep, you heard that right, freeze them.

I simply wash them, cut off the tops, and bag them in gallon freezer bags until I have enough tomatoes and time to can them (since everything seems to ripen at the same time! When you’re ready to can them, simply thaw them and process as usual!

I simply wash them, cut off the tops, and bag them in gallon freezer bags until I have enough tomatoes and time to can them (since everything seems to ripen at the same time!

This particular batch, I also swiped my finger through and deseeded because I wasn’t sure if they were going to be tomato sauce or simply canned tomatoes (they went as tomato sauce).

When you’re ready to can them, simply thaw them and process as usual!

I was so relieved when I found this tip, not only so I didn’t have to process many small batches of tomatoes – just one big batch – it also allowed me to postpone canning until after the other harvests had come in and we had our first snow!

I hope you find this as helpful to you as it was to me and happy canning!