It's common knowledge that tomatoes are annoying. For months they won't appear, turn colour or do anything even remotely exciting. Then, in September, they collectively hurl themselves off the vine and onto the ground in a dramatic, juicy death spiral.

Heirloom tomatoes, with their kaleidoscopic of colours and flavours, are trying to kill you, right? I know. Me too. They haven't even come close to accomplishing this but the intent is there.
You worry all summer that you won't get any tomatoes and then in September you've developed a stress twitch, tomato tremors if you like, because they're ALL DEMANDING YOUR ATTENTION RIGHT NOW.
What to Do With all the Tomatoes
(or die trying)
- Pick them. Pick them all now. I know you feel like you should leave them on the vine if they aren't ripe BUT ... if you have blight or disease on your tomato plants the tomatoes themselves will also get diseased and rot before they get a chance to ripen. If you pick them well before they ripen like I show you in this post you have a better chance of that tomato staying healthy.
If your tomato plants are still healthy, you can leave the tomatoes on the vine but chances are your tomato plants likely look like a crunchy scribble by now.
Store the picked tomatoes in a single layer with other tomatoes of the same ripeness. If you have a lot of tomatoes at 3 or 4 stages you'll need separate boxes or crates for them all so you can keep track of their ripening progress. If they are green or barely showing colour, add a couple of ripe tomatoes to them to help them ripen.
Check them daily for disease or rot. In about a week at room temperature you should have ripe tomatoes.
TIP: If you want to get really technical about it, put your almost ripe tomatoes in the coolest room of your house and the green tomatoes in the warmest. This will help them ripen at the same time.

These are my paste tomatoes. I planted about 16 paste tomato plants (I grow Plum Regal paste tomatoes because they're more disease resistant than Roma or San Marzano). I picked all of them last week to ripen inside so I can make sauce this weekend.
- When they're ripe, refrigerate them. That's right. Exactly what everyone says not to do. But if the choice is refrigerate or let them liquify on the counter the better choice is to refrigerate obviously. Then USE them.
- Roast them. Roasting tomatoes (either alone or with onions, herbs and garlic) uses them up and it's very little work. You chop them up and slow roast them. That's it. It leaves them ready for anything you want to use them for in the winter. Add roasted tomatoes instead of fresh to soups and stews.
I make roasted tomato sauce a few times a year with my extra tomatoes and use it all winter long for pasta. - Freeze them whole. If you don't want to roast them you can freeze whole tomatoes. The bonus for this method is that when you thaw them they skins slip right off. Add them to soups, stews, etc.
- Canning. Every year or two I can litres and litres of tomato juice from my plum tomatoes, the full instructions are in this guide.
Those jars of tomato juice ( it's a pulpy juice that's made with a tomato press that removes the skin and seeds, but saves everything else ) get used all year long for various things but the two MOST important ways I use it is to make oven roasted spaghetti & meatballs, and for pizza sauce.


- Turn them into soup. Turn your extra tomatoes into soup which you can eat immediately or pack flat in baggies and freeze. In February when you pull out a bag of heirloom tomato soup you'll be delirious with excitement and thanks that your younger self was wise enough to do this.
Easy heirloom tomato soup is my favourite, but if you're willing to work a bit more this smoked pepper and tomato soup is delicious.
There are other ways you can use up those end of season suicidal tomatoes obviously, but these are the ways you can make them last the longest because they're all preserved in some way.
Have a favourite thing to do with the glut of tomatoes this time of year? Lemme know! For instance if you know the secret recipe for getting dehydrated tomatoes to the exact right amount of dryness while still being pliable .. I and everyone else would love to know it!
Recipe for dried tomatoes: https://alexandracooks.com/2007/09/09/oven-dried-tomato-bruschetta/
I have to admit I haven’t tested it yet but I’ve never had a fail from one of her recipes.
Thanks Shauna! It's more the experience of knowing exactly when they're the proper amount of dryness that I need. It's very hard to get dehydrated tomatoes to that exact place they need to be where they're still chewy. But I'll give her technique in the oven a shot with the paste tomatoes I have ripening. ~ karen
I never get more than a few handfuls of tomatoes. I'd really hoped to get enough for at least one pot of sauce. I guess 3 sauce tomato plants and 3 cherry tomato plants are not enough?
No, seriously, how many plants minimum do I need to get enough for a good size pot of sauce?
I don't know how much sauce you want to make. A good sized pot? I can tell you for a standard stock pot you need about 16 paste tomato plants. And I wouldn't use equal parts of sweet cherry tomatoes with paste tomatoes. It would make a very sweet sauce! ~ karen!
I think my pot is only 3 quarts. I guess that's not really a "good size" pot lol. I wasn't planning on on adding the cherries, though last and this year I had hoped to get enough of those to "sun dry." Hasn't happened yet, only get a few handfuls total (average of 2-4 cherry plants). Do cherry size also take 30 days to ripen? The picture on that episode only showed slicers, so I've been meaning to ask. Thanks. 🙂
What is an average stock pot size? I have an 8quart and a 4. Maybe 12 or 20 is normal?
I would say 12 is about a normal sized stock pot for in the house - as opposed to in a restaurant. I'm not actually sure if cherry tomatoes ripen more quickly! I've never paid attention. If they do ripen faster I wouldn't think it would be any sooner than by a few days, but I'm basing that on nothing at all. ~ karen!
Crunchy squiggle indeed - perfect description.
Taking the season off growing for market means I have a very manageable amount of excess tomatoes...for once.
So this year my favourite way to deal with extra tomatoes is to give them to non-gardener friends.
(I will be making salsa and a batch of tomato soup this week though, too)
Yesterday I did sauce and today I'll be roasting. I wish I could be bothered to make salsa this year - but I can't be bothered, lol. ~ karen!
The absolute Best way to use up fresh homegrown tomatoes is to EAT them now. (In a sandwich with a little mayo,preferably)Thats the whole point of growing them for the past 6 months. I eat mine for breakfast,brunch,lunch and dinner. My neighbours get some. And the rest roasted and frozen, and some canned. Dehydrated, then ground into powder. But really, Seize the moment, with salt and pepper, now .
I didn't know where all the tomatoes were going, and thought it was too much loss to blame the squirrels. Then I caught the yellow Lab sneaking into the garden to chow down on the tomatoes!!!
So much more flavour in home grown tomatoes.
My mother-in-law taught me to make Green Tomato Chow pickle. It's a delicious relish that keeps for ages. She won a blue ribbon for her GTC pickle at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in the 70's.
I've already decided that I'm going to start entering fall fairs. Someone at my garden did it and he cleaned up in ribbons! So the thought of your mother in law's green tomato chow winning a ribbon at the Royal is impressive! :) ` karen
I have made green tomato chow chow for years with extra apples and onions and mustard seeds.
The top photo of all those tomatoes in a gradient from red at the top to the green at the bottom is a masterpiece! Beautiful!
Thanks Patti! I like it too. ~ karen!
One way to use a bunch of tomatoes is to simmer down in large roaster until very thick, drop by blobs onto parchment and flash freeze then store in freezer as tomato paste for when you want that yummy spaghetti!
I’m definitely going to try roasting some this year. I make restaurant style salsa! After all it is football season, so you can eat more chips and salsa ha!
I forgot about salsa! Thanks! I haven't made any for years. A fellow gardener of mine makes jars and jars of it. ~ karen
recipetineats.com, el bulli bean soup with tomato passata! You will love this, with or without clams.
One thing I've done in the past is dehydrate them, put them in a zip top bag and freeze them. They're great as a snack or in salads. Another thing we enjoy is tomato salad - heirlooms combined with fresh mozzarella, red onions sliced with a mandoline and dressed with homemade balsamic vinaigrette. My husband also likes some small pieces of pepperoni mixed in. I assemble the salads ahead of time (minus the tomatoes) and chill them and when we're ready to eat, I add the chunked up tomatoes along with the dressing. French Grey sea salt is added at the table per our individual tastes. And, of course, a nice bottle of red wine (malbec is our favorite with this salad) completes this meal.
Pepperoni salad? I'm kind of intrigued and kind of trepidatious. I dehydrate as well but haven't figured out the sweet spot in terms of making them dry but still pliable. I think I need to cut bigger chunks. ~ karen!
I cut them into slices rather than chunks. And I don't add very much pepperoni at all to the tomato salad so it's mostly tomatoes, mozzarella and the onions with the dressing.
Thank you 🙏
I’m going to do the roasting. I haven’t done it before, and I think they’ll be more delicious that way, frankly!
One thing I’ve always wanted to do w tomatoes, but have never been courageous enough, is to dry them and then preserve them in olive oil. (No vinegar).
I don’t know how to do this safely, but tomatoes are incredible this way - especially in Winter! In salads, as appetizers with mozzarella and olives (I DO make those and preserve in oil!), etc…
If you know how w tomatoes, please post on this !!
Thanks 🙏
Hi Tuffy! I'm not an expert on making "sun dried" tomatoes but I have done it. It's tricky to get them dried to a safe level but still soft enough to be edible! When I figure out the sweet spot for doing that I'll let you know. I'll even add it to the end of the post in case someone else IS an expert on this because I want the answer too, lol. ~karen!
I tried to come up with a really clever and amusing comment that you would simply adore... and I got nuthin'. But I DO stand in near awe of your gardening fortitude and perseverance. Skilled gardeners, and you are truly one, are an impressive breed.
I find your desire to amuse me entertaining so it all works out. ~ karen!
I live in Calgary where I don't grow, or have, as many tomatoes as you do in ON - I do have about 16, with about 10 producing what I think is great - ok, pretty good. The weather here is kinda like ON these days but it won't last - but, I still leave them on the plant for as long as I can, putting sheets over them when there might be frost. When I HAVE to, I bring them in and hang them upside down from my curtain rods. They last quite a long time. Next year, I'll start them way earlier.
That's a good way to deal with pepper plants too! ~ karen