Freeze your summer garden's results for winter dishes

Please do not get discouraged. Many of us have had, quite literally, a rotten year for tomatoes. But do not throw up your hands and say, "That's it! I sweated and slaved and then didn't get much! I quit!" No, we must stay the course.

I didn't suffer badly from the late blight, but I didn't get very many tomatoes, either. We just didn't have enough sun to push their production. So what does – as the blues man wails – "a po' boy do?" Well, I just bought a bushel of tomatoes from Edgewater Farm in Plainfield and will probably buy another bushel of tomatoes before the season is done. I'll eat summer crops all winter long – even if I can't grow all I need and want.

Buying a bushel of tomatoes – 50 pounds – allows me to make sauce (it is simmering on the stove as I write this) and to freeze whole, ripe tomatoes. I call frozen tomatoes "red rocks," which they resemble. I merely wash and dry them, slip into gallon freezer bags, and place on cookie sheets in the freezer. They are perfect for stews, soups and stir-fries. To get them ready for use, I run each under hot water while rubbing it gently so the skin comes right off. After I set it aside for five minutes, it softens enough for me to cut out the stem attachment point. Then I quarter it, chop it and put it in the pan. Voila.

Instead of thousands of Sungold cherry tomatoes, I got hundreds from my nine plants. Still, I will dry some for winter. I use a Garden Master food dehydrator made by American Harvester (www.nesco.com). It will dry hundreds at a time, forcing a gentle stream of hot air through the stack of plastic drying trays. I like it for many reasons, chief among them being its thermostat. I can set the temperature anywhere from 95 degrees to 155 degrees. I dry at 130 degrees to minimize the breakdown of vitamins in the tomatoes.

I slice the tomatoes in half, and I dry them for about 12 hours. I keep them in the fridge or freezer, but you can put them in a cupboard without ill effects. I use them in winter stews and even sandwiches. Their flavor imparts an intense flash of summer with every bite.

Making tomato sauce is not nearly as difficult as many think – if you have a good food processor. Forget about dipping tomatoes in boiling water to skin them. Skins are full of good vitamins, and when pureed in a Cuisinart or equivalent, the skins add good ingredients to your sauce. I wash them, and then core them with a paring knife. I squeeze out the seeds and extra water through the hole I made when coring the tomato, which makes for less boiling time and fewer seeds. Then I quarter them and puree.

My sauce includes not only tomatoes, but also onions, basil, thyme, fennel seeds, and a little salt and pepper. I may add hot peppers and/or garlic, oregano or rosemary, depending on my mood. I cook it on low heat in a big enameled cast iron pot – which helps prevent scorching on the bottom of the pot – for about three hours, or until the level has gone down by about half. I can, at that point, balance a spoon in the sauce. I let it cool, and then instead of canning, I ladle into freezer-grade zipper bags. I cool the sauce in the fridge before putting it into the freezer, so as to avoid introducing warm things into the freezer, making it work harder.

My recent kettle of sauce used about 15-20 pounds of tomatoes, took less than two hours of my time and produced four quart bags full of sauce.

In good years, I also make hundreds of cubes of tomato paste in my ice-cube trays. I follow the same procedure as making sauce, minus the onions and herbs. And I cook it longer, until it is really thick – to the point where you can make peaks and valleys in it with a spoon.

Peppers are excellent when frozen. I cut them into strips and freeze them on cookie sheets, later popping them into freezer bags. I don't find any difference between fresh and frozen when used in a cooked dish. I find they are even good in a winter salad – put them in the salad frozen, and by the time you eat them, they will have thawed, but not gone mushy.

Peaches are a favorite of mine, and I use the same procedure for freezing them that I do with peppers. Since they are very juicy, it is important to freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet instead of putting them directly in the bag. That way, you can grab the equivalent of one peach at a time to serve with ice cream as a winter treat, rather than thawing an entire bag.

So if your garden wasn't great this summer, do not despair. Go to your local farm stand and buy veggies for winter. You'll be glad you did. And try again next year!