Without preservation, the harvest will be wasted.
Growing food is one thing, but using it all is another. Unless you eat all that you can fresh and give away or sell the rest, chances are that you'll need to save some for later. There are a lot of different methods for all sorts of produce preservation, and in this post I'll just share one simple one for tomatoes.
EASY, EASY TOMATO PRESERVATION
This one is extremely simple. If you can slice a tomato and press a button, you can dehydrate tomatoes. In fact, you can even make a solar dehydrator (which is on our to do list) and then you can even skip the "press a button" step!
Electric dehydrators are readily available in many locations. We needed a new one, so I bought this one for $40 USD at a local store. Basically, they heat a coil below the produce which is then used to dry (dehydrate) the produce. As long as the pieces of raw food are spread out enough, the hot air can work its way in-between the pieces and remove the moisture from them.
This was our first batch for the year, and we are very excited. We are getting a lot of tomatoes almost daily from our garden, and we only have eight plants producing at the moment. To harvest over 9# of tomatoes from just eight plants in one day is a rewarding experience, and preserving our harvest makes sure that it doesn't turn into a disappointment.
One remarkable thing about dehydrated tomatoes is how sweet they become. I was completely blown away at the sweetness the first time that I tasted one, and it's a flavor that keeps me coming back for more. If you've never tried these, you really should!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-dehydrated-tomato
Until next time…
https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmSKT3AhEpV8JXA2eaE1HQPogXev5rzG4uxMzTi3ieE3Tc
FOR MORE PAPA-PEPPER CONTENT, CHECK ME OUT ON SOLA
TO TRANSLATE POSTS VIA OPERATION TRANSLATION CLICK HERE
Oh yeah! Dried homegrown tomatoes are incredible. Even though fresh food has generally more "life force" to it from the water content, I love how certain sweetness/acidity/bitterness really comes to life when produce is dried. Those are gonna be super flavorful!
KInd of remind me of mangoes I had.
I did put them in freezer for later use.
I once dehydrated tomatoes with a smidge of garlic powder and italian seasoning. They made very nice treats.
Awesome!! I want a nice dehydrator. Growing up we had a quarter acre lot, and lots of fruit trees. My dad loves fruit trees. But instead of using a dehydrator all the time, my dad built these contraptions that we could put on the top of the roof. And then burned sulfur to keep the bugs away. It was awesome. We dehydrated apricots and apples. And made some amazing fruit leather too, although we used the dehydrator for that I believe, hard to remember back that far. lol
WARNING! The comment below by @erudire leads to a known phishing site that could steal your account.
Do not open links from users you do not trust. Do not provide your private keys to any third party websites.
Those look awesome. there are so many things you can make with delicious tomatoes to preserve them such as relish, pasta sauce, ketchup, the list is endless ( well long anyway 🤣) your toms look GORGEOUS 🌈🦋💛🌴❤️Resteemed ( the post not the toms 😉)
That is usually the route we take, Canning the tomatoes, I usually end up with Tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, vegetable soup. I've never tried making ketchup before. New bucket list item.
My favorite is Salsa and Chili Starter. It's how I save my peppers. They are basically the same I just add a lot more chili peppers to the chili starter, and I learned to use pint jars for the salsa unless you eat a lot of salsa.
Thanks @sallybeth23! I agree, we've got a lot more planned for our tomatoes!
Wonderful! Do share those plans with us 😉
This is the really tasty and healthy food photography.
This is my favorite food photography..
Your post is a lot of great ..
Actually I appreciate this post..
Nice
Posted using Partiko Android
A lot of fruits and vegetables go to waste especially during the high season(season of harvest), yet they can also be dehydrated for a longer shelf life.
WARNING - The message you received from @erudire is a CONFIRMED SCAM!
DO NOT FOLLOW any instruction and DO NOT CLICK on any link in the comment!
For more information about this scam, read this post:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@arcange/phishing-site-reported-steem-link-premium
If you find my work to protect you and the community valuable, please consider to upvote this warning or to vote for my witness.
We like to dehydrate our cherry tomatoes that have been halved. No need for a solar oven, just put them on your dashboard with the windows cracked. Haha!
I've done that with Stinging Nettles and Peppers, but not cherry tomatoes! Great Idea!
howdy @papa-pepper! I had no idea that dehydrated tomatoes were sweet, I wasn't interested in them until I found that out! great job!
Yeah, well worthwhile to try! I really like them!
I have the same dehydrator and I love it! @papa-pepper
LOL - Small world on this steemit here!
So cool... sun dried tomatoes are great too. It brings out the fruitiness!
Oh yeah! One of my (hopefully) next projects!
best idea to dehydrate tomatoes but we don't have Electric dehydrators
we dehydrat tomatoes, onion and other vegetables in the sunlight, it is free
and easy.
I used to enjoy the Ronco food dehydrator commercials, that's awesome, I always seem to let a lot of excess go to waste, any suggestions for eggplants?
Never at any point came across electric dehydrator. The only method I adopt when prolonging the shelf life of my tomato is to keep them in a refrigerator. This is another piece to hold on to.
You could sun dry them too!
@papa-pepper you are very smart in processing food and vegetables ... many new things that I learned from you ... although I am a planter but many things I have not know about food processing.
AJ picked your post @papa-pepper for his #TOP5 FOOD POST. Visit AJ's FOOD ROUNDUP to view where your post is ranked.
You can also join The-Kitchen Discord Server for more food experience.
Cool! Those tomatoes look great!
Grandma has a dehydrator. She uses it all the time. That and along with canning.
Wow! Never really knew tomato can be preserved by dehydration and retains a good taste
I will certainly try this out