Use the Sun to Preserve and Make Sundried Tomatoes
[Australian guest blogger, Stuart Robinson from Gardening Tip 'n' Ideas, shares tomato preservation tips from down under at Tomato Casual.]
By Stuart Robinson
While a bumper tomato crop may be the toast of this seasons veggie patch, most of your fruit could end up on the compost heap.
A good harvest is the goal of any home gardener but what do you do when the yields border on over-abundance?
Fortunately for us nature has already provided the solution especially when it comes to tomatoes.
Most of this season’s fruit will begin to mature in mid to late summer leaving us with at least another month of warm, sun-drenched days. And, that sun is a free drying machine ready to drag the moisture out of even the most uncooperative tomatoes.
For a short period of my life I actually ran a tomato-drying business catering to the local restaurant and café scene.
In the winter months, we would use equipment to suck the moisture from the fruit but when summer rolled around we relied on the sun.
Which method gave the better taste? It’s a rhetorical question.
So, how can you sun-dry your own tomatoes?
Firstly, leave the fruit on the bushes for as long as you can. When allowed to ripen on the plant, the tomatoes sugar levels will increase and produce a much sweeter, richer flavour. Reduce the amount of water you give to your plants – it will only be evaporated, anyway – and don’t be anxious about blemishes or insect attacks.
Get the long-range weather forecasts for the next 10 days ensuring that you’re in for some warm, low-humidity bursters.
Next, cut the fruit into halves or smaller if you’re growing larger varieties.
Then lay them on some old, cleaned fly-wire screens supported above ground level and cover with mosquito netting. Leave them in the sun until they are still pliable but not too chewy.
Finally, store them packed in clean glass jars mixed with a little Balsamic vinegar, capers, fresh basil (using dried will increase the shelf-life) and garlic.
Cover completely with a mix of 1:4 olive oil/canola oil and resist the temptation to consume the lot within the first week.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:57 am
I use a dehydrator and it’s a lot easier if you don’t have a tons of free time to mess around with netting and screens.
That balsamic, capers & basil mix sounds great though. I’ll have to give it a try.
August 23rd, 2007 at 4:52 am
A dehydrator is a great idea! Particularly for guys on the go like me.