Gardening Surplus - Drying Tomatoes

We are up to our ears in cherry & grape tomatoes out in the garden. The nights are getting colder and our summer garden will be wrapping up for the season, but I still have a mountain of juicy, sweet, red tomatoes. What to do?


Well, after filling up the colander we had to get creative with our containers. Thank goodness my son is so helpful.

So, we are working on canning the larger tomatoes, but with the little cherry and grape varieties I like to dry them. It is a cheaper alternative to the sun dried tomatoes in the supermarket. I just cut them in half, or quarters if they are really large. I place them cut side down on the tray and let the dehydrator do it's thing!

It takes about 12 hours to dry them and then I seal them up in food saver bags. I store them in our freezer flat so they don't take up much room.


When I want to use them, usually tossed in a pasta, I either soak them in warm chicken stock or olive oil. They soften up nicely and have an intensified sweet taste. It is so good and easy, I recommend giving it a try.

So, what do you do with your extra tomatoes?