Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Dehydrating

I've been doing more than canning to preserve the harvest this week. I've been busy dehydrating. For the last couple of days I've been working on my Principe Borghese tomatoes. My other cherry tomatoes finally decided to start tasting sweeter so now these ones can fulfill their true destiny as a dried tomato. I've never dried tomatoes before. I'm a bit iffy on when I should stop. I figure very dry means they keep better, but they are probably better to use if they are the consistency of fruit leather. This batch I dried pretty well. Next one will be dried not as much. It is always fun to play around with things to see how they work.

The funny thing about "sun" dried tomatoes is that I've never in my life bought them. So I've never used them. But I figure they will make great pasta salads in the winter. I'll have to explore how to use them more.

This morning I mowed my parsley down to the ground. I had four plants and got a huge pile of leaves.

They are in the dehydrator drying away. I'm hoping they will be done by tonight. I don't like to leave them going overnight as they can get too dry and hot without me watching. Some year I'll buy a really good dehydrator.

17 comments:

  1. I'd like to have a dehydrator, but we just don't have anymore space for anything.

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  2. That's something I need to invest in. I love sun dried tomatoes!

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  3. Dried tomatoes are great! I made over 8 quarts last year and I'm getting down to the last bit now. I put them in lots of things, since I refuse to buy a tomato from the grocery store...especially in winter. My dried tomatoes go into pastas, onto pizzas, onto cheese and guacamole sandwiches, even into mac and cheese! They are easy to rehydrate with hot water.

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  4. Hee, I read it as you needing to drink more water. No, don't dehydrate! Actually, dehydrating food seems like a great idea.

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  5. Yum! I love the intense color (and flavor) from dehydrated tomatoes!!

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  6. I read it the same way as Stefaneener, that maybe you or your garden was dehydrated. Glad to hear that you are, in fact, being productive and processing your harvest! Another idea for using "sun" dried tomatoes is to include them in your pesto (just process them all together) to make sun-dried tomato pesto. It gives your pesto a nice color as well as flavor!

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  7. The dried tomatoes look so pretty in a jar.

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  8. EG, I know how you feel. I keep mine in the basement except when I use it.

    meemsnyc, well you can always do it the old fashioned way by letting them dry in the sun.

    Jackie, wow 8 quarts? That would take a lot of tomatoes.

    Stefaneener, lol nope I'm not dehydrated personally. Just my produce from the garden.

    Holly, I do too. Tomatoes turn the brightest red when they are dehydrated.

    Thyme, that sounds really good. Maybe I should make more frozen pesto? I have way too much basil anyway.

    Mac, thanks

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  9. Your tomatoes are beautiful. Dehydrator, let me add that to my list.

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  10. I feel like such a slacker! I have basil that needs to be attended to and I have just been ignoring it. I really must get my act together this weekend and get some things taken care of. I no longer have a dehydrator, got rid of our old one when we moved back in 2004 but I can borrow my sisters when I want it or use the oven on low for a few hours and then use sunshine to finish it up. I read somewhere you can place the herbs in a paperbag and leave it on the dash board of a car to do a good job of dehydrating herbs as well. I would not do that with things like tomatoes, but I may give that a spin with the basil just for grins.

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  11. I don't dry tomatoes as I haven't got a drier, but I usually dry some of the figs in the sun. The result's good, except that I have to inspect them every day for maggots, even though I keep them covered, and so end up throwing quite a lot away!

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  12. I'm wondering whether or sungolds would be suitable for drying. We are buried at the moment!

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  13. I'll bet you find a bunch of uses for those dried tomatoes. We use lots of them in winter. Like Jackie said, on pizza & pasta plus salads, egg dishes (frittatas), with green beans, spinach - you're only limited by your imagination.

    Yours have a nice color, so I doubt they are too dry. Ours turn dark if we leave them in too long.

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  14. What a great post! I'm growing one of these same tomatoes for sun dried tomatoes too. It will be the first time I've attempted this. Once you start using these tomatoes you'll probably be hooked - they add a new dimension as they're so tasty!

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  15. The dried tomatoes look tasty! They are good on pizza with some asiago and what not.

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  16. Martha, thanks

    KitsapFG, I hope your car dehydrator works out. It seems like it would work really well. Basil might be an issue though. If it gets too hot it turns brown. But then again I guess it isn't getting that hot out there so you probably won't have an issue.

    Jan, I wonder if you could make a bag of some kinds to put them in. That ought to keep all the critters out.

    Thomas, It doesn't hurt to try. They do have a lot of juice so it might take a few days to get them dry.

    villager, since I've never bought sun dried tomatoes I've never touched them to see how dry they really are. I'll figure it out though.

    A Kitchen Garden, I hope so. I really miss tomatoes in the winter. I rarely buy then then. Though there is one place that actually has pretty good ones, they cost $7 a pound so it doesn't happen often.

    Dan, that sounds delicious.

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  17. I love sun dried tomatoes. We don't have a dehydrator, so I 'dry' mine in the oven (more like a good roasting) and then pack them in oil in the freezer. They go in dips, quiches, pizzas, pastas, and just about anything else you could think of. Good stuff Daphne, I hope you find just as many uses for your delicious looking tomatoes. :)

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