Best Heirloom Tomatoes For Canning

A tomato connoisseur recommends the best heirloom tomatoes for canning and his favorite cultivars based on flavor, reliability, and years of experience. Here are some of his best tomato varieties.

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by Dreamstime/picalotta
Find the best tomatoes for your sauce and canning recipes.

A tomato connoisseur recommends the best heirloom tomatoes for canning and his favorite cultivars based on flavor, reliability, and years of experience. Here are some of his best tomato varieties.

The basis of great home-preserved tomato products is, of course, great tomatoes. When preserving ketchup, tomato paste, or other dishes that require an extended amount of reduction, save time by choosing fleshy tomatoes that aren’t too watery or full of seeds. Good picks include paste and plum tomatoes along with heart-shaped and beefsteak types. Though shape or size may tell you something about the suitability of a cultivar for preservation, color should never be a factor.

Tomatoes can easily be frozen whole in freezer bags with no preparation aside from a rinse to remove any dirt and a quick check to avoid rotting areas. Skinning tomatoes before canning them is a matter of personal preference, but by eliminating this somewhat labor-intensive step, the whole process should be more accessible to beginners.

Decoding Tomato Language

D: Determinate. All of these will grow in a 5-gallon or larger container supported by 4-foot stakes or short cages.

  • Updated on Jul 25, 2022
  • Originally Published on Feb 16, 2017
Tagged with: beefsteak, brandywine, cultivars, gardening, tomato varieties, tomatoes
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