My gardens are dead.
Like me without coffee on Friday morning.
But before they were totally gone forever, I picked my green tomatoes and brought them inside to get them to ripen. Which they did. Whoop whoop.
In my last ditch attempt to get the most out of our garden homestead before its inevitable death, I dehydrated the tomatoes so we can savor them all winter long. I thought this would be a good first instructional post because, well, it is impossible to get this wrong. Easy. Cheap. Yummy. Totally worth it.
Step one: Cut the tomatoes into 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick slices. Don't allow any mold or
Step Two: Dehydrate. As in plug in the dehydrator. This is a very complicated step, so DON'T SCREW IT UP.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. I am just passionate about these tomatoes.
Here is a visual of the goods dehydrating:
Step Three: After they are nice and dry, just peel them off the racks and tuck them into a jar or bag to store them. I like jars because you can recycle them and use them over again. For free. Which is always a plus in poordom. -Tip- Our favorite way to use these is to rehydrate them in some warm water and then eat them on grilled sandwiches or cut them up into chunks and sprinkle them in pasta.
Here are the goods, post dehydration:
If you are too cool to do your own dehydrating when you crave a tomato in February just buy one from Safeway! It was drenched in pesticides, picked two months ago, and traveled +1,000 miles to get here from Ecuador, but I'm sure it's still delicious.
I apologize for the sarcasm. Sort of. But those tomatoes are pretty nasty. We can do better.
Enjoy!
Dried tomatoes
Equipment
- Dehydrator
Instructions
- Cut the tomatoes into 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick slices. Don't allow any mold or grossies in there. Mold will kill the goods.
- Dehydrate. As in plug in the dehydrator. This is a very complicated step, so DON'T SCREW IT UP.
- After they are nice and dry, just peel them off the racks and tuck them into a jar or bag to store them. I like jars because you can recycle them and use them over again. For free. Which is always a plus in poordom. -Tip- Our favorite way to use these is to rehydrate them in some warm water and then eat them on grilled sandwiches or cut them up into chunks and sprinkle them in pasta.
I just started dehydrating our tomatoes this year. I got excited because I read in my dehydrator manual that dehydrated matoes can be powdered, stored, then turned into paste, sauce, juice, and pizza sauce! So much easier than canning! I havent tried it out yet since I just started dehydrating them, but Im really excited to see how it works out!
I almost bought a dehydrator for sprouting/dehydrating/grinding my wheat berries… but then I decided that soaking was easier and cheaper. I will probably end up owning a dehydrator one day though (maybe later this year). In the mean time, I did pick up some organic dehydrated tomatoes from our food co-op a few months ago… but I don’t know what to do with them!!
I like them on grilled cheese sandwiches!
What kind of dehydrator do you have? I’m in the market to buy one but I don’t know where to start or what kind to get.
I just watched your FULL Farmhouse TOUR | Before & After | Cottage Style Decorating video, followed the link to the bathroom remodel, and decided to start at the beginning.
I love dried tomatoes.
I love marinated dried tomatoes in olive oil, olives, onions and spices. The oil is permeated with the flavors and is used for frying eggs and sauteing all sorts of things.
Where I grew up, there is an urban farm that almost lost the whole tomato crop to a natural disaster. They didn’t have time to do much but harvest and… smoke the tomatoes. Those smoked tomatoes are now a cherished city secret.
All to say, thank you so much for your lovely videos and now, for me, this exciting blog.
About once a year at holiday season I fire up the smoker, smoke up a bunch of vine ripened maters and make smoked tomato soup with homemade croutons. Delish and always a hit.
I saw a video once, where the lady sprinkled Italian Seasoning on her tomatoes before dehydrating to add flavor. Sounded so good. Just a thought.
Love your personality.