Sigh and dry

Credit: Carol Pope

Weighed down by the new problem of what to do with all our lovely, ripe, red tomatoes (following my previously lamented pre-greenhouse years of harvesting all our tomatoes green before they were blackened by blight), we have discovered that homemade dried tomatoes are to die for (and so much better than the bottled store-bought sun-dried variety). In just a few minutes, we had sliced and laid out these tomatoes and several other treats for overnight dehydration in an oven heated to 140°F and the results were very tasty indeed. Hopefully, our next batch won’t be simply gobbled up in minutes but will be saved for winter snacks and pizza Marguerite. For those of you who would like to learn more about the process of dehydration, pick up Robin Wheeler’s excellent new book, Food Security for the Faint of Heart (a fun and encouraging read!). Or check out this (much less entertaining but also helpful) fact sheet from Clemson University.