Let's Talk BBQ
Tips, Tricks & Just Good Advice! => Good to Know! - A collection of How-To's & Sage Advice => Garden to Table - Growing Your Own! => Topic started by: smoker pete on June 20, 2014, 05:21:47 PM
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I received many wonderful suggestions concerning what to do with all those tomatoes from my garden. Chose to dehydrate a batch cause it allows me to dust off my Dehydrator and I can store the dehydrated tomatoes for a long time without too much effort ;)
Set the dehydrator to 140ºF. Should take 8-12 hours ... they've been in for 2½ hours now and counting 8)
(http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab105/papa_peter/Garden/Dehydration/Tomatoes/tomatoes1_zps87ac410a.jpg)
The Cherry tomatoes (red & yellow) have to be cut in half but they were too small and kept falling through. Just as well - I prefer eating those beauties anyway! I'm thinking I should get me some new FrogMats, cut them to size, so I can dehydrate smaller items.
(http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab105/papa_peter/Garden/Dehydration/Tomatoes/tomatoes2_zps972dc354.jpg)
I underestimated the time it would take to prep the tomatoes and the amount of paper towels :(
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Removed as many seeds as possible and tried to keep a lot of the pulp. Used paper towels to soak up much of the moisture in order to facilitate the dehydration.
(http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab105/papa_peter/Garden/Dehydration/Tomatoes/tomatoes4_zpsf2dbccf0.jpg)
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Great looking tomatoes. ;)
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Are they done yet?
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Are they done yet?
Close, but no cigar Pappy ;) 3 hours in with 4-6 hours to go according to the instructions ...
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I would have just sat down with a shaker of salt (and maybe some bread and mayo) and polished them off.
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I would have just sat down with a shaker of salt (and maybe some bread and mayo) and polished them off.
Still have plenty more on the vine Billy! ;D Some bacon and lettuce would accompany that bread and mayo real nice or maybe just add some red onion to the maters, mayo, and bread :D
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Ooooh, I'm excited to see how these come out! Will you let us know how they compare to store bought sun dried toms?
Definitely keeping this method in mind when my plants decide to start catching up to your surplus! :)
We've had quite mild weather so far this summer. It's been really nice in the 60's and 70's with only a few days breaching 80, which isn't great for growing quickly, but sure as heck saves some cash on spendy AC bills. :) Especially for my Alaskan blood, I start to wilt at about 75°. ::)
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You're going to love those, my wife loves it when I make a batch for her, they go great in a loaf of bread to.
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Are they done yet?
They sure are Pappy 8) ... 9 hours at 140ºF.
(http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab105/papa_peter/Garden/Dehydration/Tomatoes/tomatoes13_zpsdf659c99.jpg)
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YES!!! Its GREAT how dehydrating concentrates the flavor,makes a roma a taste monster!
Well done Pete! ;)
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Those will be wonderful in soups and stews.