Make quick work of preserving your tomato harvest by canning tomatoes whole. It’s an easy way to preserve their fresh taste, and will give you a product that you can use any number of ways.

Stewed tomatoes are delicious served as a main course or as a side dish, and they’re a frequent ingredient in chili, soup, stew and casserole recipes. If you’re looking for a simple way to use up some of the excess tomatoes from your garden, you should definitely consider stewing some of your harvest. It’s a quick and easy process, and it doesn’t require canning.

Is your garden producing tomatoes faster than you can eat them? Turn some of your surplus into diced tomatoes to use in your fall and winter cooking.

Have more tomatoes than you know what to do with? Use some of them to make your own crushed tomatoes, so you won’t have to rely on the store-bought kind whenever a soup, stew, chili or casserole recipe calls for a can. Homemade crushed tomatoes are really easy to make, and they’re way more flavorful than anything you can buy at the grocery store. Preserve your crushed tomatoes by canning them or freezing them. They’re great either way. Here’s how to make a batch.

Have loads of tomatoes coming in from your garden, but no time to make anything with them? Just freeze them until you have more time. Here’s my preferred method.