I put up 80lbs of tomatoes last night. I was originally thinking I would make more spaghetti sauce however, my “to do” list for the day wasn’t finished until 9pm leaving me little time to process all the tomatoes that graced our table and counters. Josiah and Ezekiel suggested we wait till tomorrow however, if there is one thing I have learned over the years it’s that I don’t want to wake to a fresh new day with yesterdays chores! As I talked with my mom over the phone, telling her what I still needed to do she said, “Well Jeanette, why don’t you just dry them?!” Praise God for common sense in moments like this! Whew! What a relief, I could easily put up all those tomatoes and still get to bed at a reasonable hour. With a little help from the boys we actually processed all the tomatoes and cleaned up the mess after us! If you have some tomatoes to put up, I would encourage you to consider drying them. You can sun dry them or use your oven on a low heat to dry them. I was blessed with a large commercial size dehydrator that I LOVE using for my drying projects. We put up our herbs from the garden, jerky, fruit and of course tomatoes!
To dry tomatoes: Simply cut your tomatoes into slices as if you were slicing them for sandwiches. Then lay out on your tray, sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic. You could add some basil or oregano if you so chose. Dry at 150 degrees for 10 hours. Put into jars and keep sealed till you are ready to use them. It’s important that there is no moisture to them whatsoever so don’t hesitate to dry them longer if need be.
Here are some photos from our tomato drying adventure last night. I don’t have any of the finished project to show you because they are still drying. I just love showing off my boys so that’s why you get to see these photos! :-)
Have a wonderful day dear friends as you minister faithfully to your family!
Much love,
Mrs. Joseph Wood
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