The weather here remains fairly dry and not too hot. These seem to be perfect conditions for the tomatoes, which are ripening slowly but surely. I've started the process of drying as many tomatoes as I can in the dehydrator we bought last year.
The tomatoes need to be cut into two or four wedges depending on their size. Right now I'm drying the smaller tomatoes coming out of the garden. Once they are dried I'll pack them in small jars that I'll keep over the winter in the cold pantry downstairs.
Yesterday I prepared enough tomatoes to fill three trays in the dehydrator. While I was working, Walt went out and picked more tomatoes. Soon we'll start making sauce again and turning it into tomato paste by heating it slowly in shallow pans in the oven.
It takes 24 to 48 hours to dry the tomato wedges in the deshydrateur at 60ºC (140ºF). The ones on the left have been drying for about 20 hours now. Dried tomatoes and tomato paste are highly space-efficient when it comes to storage. They don't need to be stored in the freezer. And both dried tomatoes and tomato paste have a very concentrated flavor that can enhance all kinds of sauces, salads, stuffings, and even savory cakes.
I do love these dried tomatoes! We are having an amazingly prolific tomato harvest in northeast Ohio this summer...Peppers, not so good.
ReplyDeleteWe are getting some peppers — hot peppers — but more in the greenhouse than out in the garden. We have Espelette peppers and habanero peppers.
DeleteSo many marvelous tomatoes!
ReplyDeleteI saw an ad for dehydrators the other day in which they showed trays of various foods going in the machines including asparagus which is a vegetable I would never have thought of drying.
ReplyDeleteAsparagus? That wouldn't have occurred to me either. I've dried eggplant and zucchini slices in the past, but it wasn't worth it. They took forever to rehydrate.
DeleteThey have the most intense tomato flavor after doing this ! My husband always wanted to try doing it himself but we never got around to it ..
ReplyDeleteDo you have evacuation plans? All the best to you and yours.
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