I rinse and dry cherry tomatoes, then freeze them whole. They're nice for adding to soups or stews in the winter. I don't bother to peel them because tomato peels have never bothered me. :p I've never tried freezing regular whole tomatoes because I don't have the freezer space.

Someone told me that if you run cold water over a frozen tomato the skin can be slipped right off. I've never bothered to try it, but then I've never had success peeling tomatoes with the dip in boiling water followed by a dip in ice water. I just use a vegetable peeler or paring knife. :p

Dry them in your oven.

dcarch

I'm having the same problem. Not enough to can a load, but too many to eat. I've been cooking them a bit and running them through a foley food mill, then simmering down to paste and dehydrating 'plops'. Now that they're coming on heavy I'll probably freeze some sauce and can when I have a load.

You don't have to peel them if you don't mind the skins. You can freeze them whole and when they thaw the skins will slip off. But my experience is that after awhile in the freezer they taste odd.

I don't like peeling them either. When I have a bunch I'll toss them in the oven to soften and run them through the Victorio strainer using a salsa screen...makes chopped tomatoes with no peeling. It makes a whole different kind of mess, but it's fast.

I don't really care for frozen tomatoes, but the skins will slip right off when thawed, so they don't need to be peeled first.

I'm thinking that if you freeze them now and make something with them later, that might make them more palatable, at least to my taste.

Like KatieC, I think they taste a bit "off" when they are in the freezer for a period of time, and the texture suffers too.
Make them into tomato sauce, though, and that freezes better for some reason.

That's of no help to you, of course, if you had time to make sauce, you'd have time to can the tomatoes!

I canned 10 quarts of tomato juice tonight, but it IS time consuming.

Annie

How about making a couple of batches of the tomato jam that foodonastump posted last month? That would take care of 3 lbs. It doesn't need to be canned. I've just finished making my second batch. It's a very good & easy recipe, & I'll freeze some of it.

Tomato Jam
Yield: About 1 pint

1 1/2 pounds good ripe tomatoes (Roma are best), cored and coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh grated or minced ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 jalapeño or other peppers, stemmed, seeded and minced, or red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste.

1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan, Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.
2. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, then cool and refrigerate until ready to use; this will keep at least a week. NY Times/Mark Bittman

Thanks everybody. How do you go about drying them in the oven. Could you cook them in the microwave? After that how do you keep them? Barb

Today (and one day last week) I just washed and cut them up and put them in a SS roasting pan with onions, garlic, mushrooms, basil and olive oil.... into the oven while I did errands and tonight we will have a wonderful roasted sauce. DS said it smells like pizza. We are going to be gone for a month, so I really cleaned out frige and added a whole garlic thing plus cloves, and most of the leaves from a basil plant. If there is any left over I will freeze it in a Food Saver bag. Makes a great 'hurry-up' meal another time. DS will be just putting whole ones into the freezer, bagged, until we get home when I most likely will make sauce. They are really coming on strong, of course!
Yes..... don't forget to add the Cabernet!

I used excess tomatoes to make my own sauce.

Our sauce called for us to cut up tomatoes and throw them in the blender and puree and then strain.

I suppose rather than make sauce, you could just stop at that point and freeze the juice until you're ready to finish the sauce up or use the tomatoes for something else like soup....

Oven drying isn't very energy efficient, but it works. Set your oven on lowest setting and crack the door open. Running a fan past will hasten the process.

Then you can condition them so you know they're ok for storage. Put them in an airtight container. Roll them around a few times a day for a few days. If there is any condensation, they need to dry longer. That also distributes the moisture so all you pieces have the same texture. Store in a cool dry, dark place (some people freeze their dried foods, but I never have...no freezer space).

I have a load of cherry tomatoes in the dehydrator...cut side up, seasoned w/ s&p, granulated garlic and some dried oregano. Yummy in pasta or frittatas etc

In a real pinch? Last year i put 5or6 in a zip-lock, squeezed out all air, then smashed them with my fist to flatten, toss in freezer, repeat...i had not time and they were going to rot.
I had plans to do better but no time. Later on in winter they were great. Glad we had them.

Many ways to dry them but not a microwave. Cut into wedges on parchment, (cut out the bit of tough core), skin side down, on a cookie sheet, roast in oven on about 325-ish for an hour you will get a roasty flavor and concentrate the tomatoes by drying the watery content a bit. Still juicy and sweet. Zip-lock and freeze. Roast longer for a stronger tomato flavor. Cherry toms cut in half and roasted the same way will shrink quite a bit....just roast until they are what you like...a little or a lot. I just freeze cherry toms whole and take out what i want whenever...usually for a quiche or pizza.
This year i had a bit of time and roasted various ways with other veg and without. Roasted longer or less. Some chunky, some pureed. One variety really brightened with rich sweet after a bit of roasting. Not at all metalic like canned tomatoes. Near 40lbs for12 dollars at market, i went back for more...

As there's a zillion ways to use good fresh-frozen tomato sauce, I just threw 'em in the blender and froze it. Great in the winter when you're doing braises and casseroles anyway.