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Preserving the tomato harvest

With our tomato harvest coming in fast, we were faced with the need to:
  • Cultivate an untiring passion for tomato-centric meals;
  • Distribute the harvest to friends; or
  • Find a preservation method. This usually means canning (or cooking and canning, if you want tomato sauce or stewed tomatoes), which doesn't have a lot of appeal on hot days.
Several years ago we did try canning. Tomato canning is a good starting place for a beginner because the acid in the tomatoes helps prevent botulism, so you don't have to worry quite so much about wiping out a dinner party with home-canned tomatoes.

As I recall, a neighbor had a bumper crop of San Marzanos. They did their own canning and distributed the overflow to friends. 

I loved the name. "San Marzano" just rolls off your tongue -- like, well like Italian with a really good accent.  It's just such a pasta-ready name. Until then, the tomatoes I knew were anonymous as soon as the Magic Marker washed off the little plastic stake. And "Beef Steak" just doesn't have the ring of "San Marzano."

Neither Karen nor I had done any canning. After buying the Ball instruction and recipe book, a flat or two of jars, a blue-speckled canner, some bent tongs, a jar basket and a wide-mouthed funnel, we were ready to spend hours in a steamy kitchen, peeling tomatoes, boiling jars and boiling peeled tomatoes in jars. It's not on my Top10 List of Things I'd Like to Do Again.

This year, our preservation method of choice was dehydration. We used my favorite process: I bundled the bulky, 10-tiered dehydrator into a vinyl grocery bag and delivered it to Farmer Karen to do the rest.

And, oh what a delicious job she did!

The lovely, brick-red dried tomatoes were about the size of gourmet potato chips (the smaller ones, not the dip-gobbing picnic-sized chips). They were chewy and tender with a fresh, sweet-tart taste that enticed you to eat another . . . then another . . . then . . .  They are perfect to eat by themselves as a snack, with a dip or tossed into a salad.

At first bite, I was ready to drop the Friends and Neighbors Sharing Plan and concentrate our harvest into dehydrated tomato chips. Here is the secret recipe:

Karen Fink's DWP-Dried Tomato Chips

Step 1: Clean, dry and remove the stems from fresh garden tomatoes (or ones purchased from a farmers market).

Step 2: Slice or cut the tomatoes into wedges. Some sources suggest using an egg slicer for this. It might be great, but it might create a massive mess. Karen chose to make slices using a knife rather than wedges because the slices are more even and dehydrate better. She cut our smallish (roma-sized) tomatoes into thirds.

Step 3: Lay the tomato slices out evenly on the dehydrator trays. Stack the trays in the dehydrator and set the temperature for 135 degrees F. Dry for nine to 12 hours. Rotate the trays in the dehydrator every couple of hours.

When finished, let the tomato chips cool, then put them in an air-tight container.  They can be frozen for a longer lifespan.

You could season the tomatoes before drying. Karen preferred to leave them in their natural state. 
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