What do you do when you have hundreds of pounds of high-quality gleaned tomatoes? You throw a Tomato Preserving Party! 

This tomato season, Waldo County Bounty (WCB) hosted a preserving event at the Belfast Soup Kitchen to preserve farm-fresh tomatoes for area food pantries, and it was a true community effort involving the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Waldo County, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Maine SNAP-Ed, and Veggies For All, as well as a team of truly amazing volunteers. Many hands make light work, and the day was full of laughs and learning for a good cause.

At 10am, everyone convened inside of the industrial kitchen at the Belfast Soup Kitchen, where boxes and boxes of beefsteak, paste, and other tomato varieties covered every inch of counter space. Johnny’s Selected Seeds donated the tomatoes from its farm in Albion, Maine, and the Veggies For All gleaning program delivered them to the Belfast Soup Kitchen. Maine SNAP-Ed staff lent a hand to help process tomatoes and provided workshop participants with magazines and printed recipes.

Viña Lindley, the food systems and home horticulture professional from UMaine Cooperative Extension Waldo County, led the way (Viña also leads the the WCB Gardening Program). She provided expert instruction on how to safely can, dehydrate, and freeze tomatoes. After receiving aprons and nifty tomato corers, everyone sprung into action. Knives and corers caught the glint of the overhead lighting, tomato seeds and skin spilled over the food mill, and tomato juice flew through the air. “There’s something unbelievably satisfying about using these corers,” one volunteer ruminated.  

The first project was tomato fruit leather, which is basically like a Fruit Roll-Up but made with dehydrated tomatoes. “Tomato leather can be reconstituted and used anywhere you'd add cooked tomatoes, from soup or chili to sauces for pizza or tacos,” said Viña. “Really, you can add it anywhere you might want to add a deep tomato flavor.” The volunteers pureed the tomato and vegetable mix, spread it thinly on trays, and placed it in the dehydrator, where it dried for several hours.

Food systems professional Viña Lindley shared the latest updates in fruit and vegetable preserving techniques. Photo by WCB/Mattie John Bamman

The team also roasted tomatoes for a tomato sauce, and they canned it using the hot water bath method. After a delicious lunch prepared by the Belfast Soup Kitchen, the last task of the day was blanching, peeling, slicing, and freezing tomatoes. The volunteers got to take home a jar of canned roasted marinara sauce and as many tomatoes as they could carry, and Veggies For All delivered the preserved tomatoes to the industrial freezers at the Waldo County Technical Center, which are used by area food pantries and other food access organizations.

The Tomato Preserving Party was an intersection of farming, gleaning, hunger relief, and food education, and it was also a great way to spend time with one’s community. The volunteers came from different walks of life but were united by a desire to help more people access local foods – learning a few preserving tricks along the way. It’s pretty special when you can combine all of these distinct but connected aspects of food, health, and well-being in one place. 

Waldo County Bounty couldn’t have hosted the Tomato Preserving Party if not for our community! Thank you to our volunteers, partners, and donors for your support! Remember that Viña and the UMaine Cooperative Extension in Waldo County offer ongoing workshops, free dial-gauge testing for pressure canners, and resources for home gardeners. Click here to access additional resources and programming around food preservation. In the meantime, check out more photos from the fun and productive preserving event below.