By figuring out a good way to support the plants, and a netting system that keeps out the birds and most of the voles, I have ended up with the best crop of tomatoes from four plants that I have had in years. So, while those cherry tomatoes were roasting (see prior post), I figured it made sense to also show you the best way to peel those full sized tomatoes that were starting to stack up. You bring a pot of water to a boil, drop in a few tomatoes, and leave them for about 30 seconds. You will see the skin start to split on some of them. Lift them right out with a slotted spoon and let them cool a bit. Cut out the core and the peel just slips right off, often in one piece!
I add one more step: I slice them down the middle, in the direction you would cut to made a nice sandwich slice, and then squeeze out some of the excess water and seeds, Here you see the peels, seeds and cores ready to go to the chickens or the worm composter, and the beautiful tomatoes, ready to use. I went ahead and canned these: six nice pints of crushed tomatoes for future use, plus made a bit of sauce and added some to stock I had to start a soup.
