Weston Tomato Press

Weston Tomato Press Assembled

While this is actually a general-purpose hand juicer with several screens, it is branded as a tomato press, and it is pretty much a single-purpose tomato processor for me. The juice and the meat are pressed through the screen onto the shoot and can be collected in a bowl.

All the skin and seeds come right out of the funnel. You can dehydrate them to make tomato powder or use them for compost.

Sometimes you find that particular piece of gear that hits a very specific sweet spot. For me that was the Weston Juicer. Like many home gardeners I was faced with the challenge of processing all of those Roma tomato getting bigger and redder at pretty much the same time. Cooking and peeling was just a ton of work that I really did not enjoy.

I can’t actually remember how I discovered this little gem, but it is available on the Weston site.

Operation is straightforward. Tomatoes go into the big bowl on top and you press them down onto the screw mechanism inside. Turn the handle which presses the tomato against the screen and force the seeds and skins out through the end.

I have two minor gripes; the suction doesn’t always hold (be sure to clean your counter well before using) and clean requires disassembly and is a bit of work. Neither are remotely deal breakers and you can process a lot of tomatoes quickly.

I typically run a batch of tomatoes through twice to get as much off the skins as I can.