Saving Space - Dehydrating Canned Tomatoes

The love affair with my dehydrator is more intense these days.  If it's not nailed down or consumed, more than likely food will find itself on a drying tray. 

Nine pints of tomatoes sat in my pantry that were a couple of years old.  There are a lot of conversations lately about how long home canned items should sit on the shelf and a lot more disagreement about the quality of the canning lids or flats, as Mom called them.  The debate is not about the sealing material, but about how much of that material is on the lid, especially during the last couple of years.  Ball, Kerr, Mason packaging states that home canned items should be used within a year and claim that has always been the recommendation.  Home canners are upset that their canned goods no longer have a 3-5 year shelf life as they had been accustomed.  There seems to be no resolution.  So rather than taking a chance on losing my good organic tomatoes, I dried them. 

As is typical, I forget to keep a camera on hand during the process.  The text version will have to do for now.

I drained the biggest portion of the liquid from the tomatoes, mostly water, then gently spread two pints of tomatoes on a dehydrator tray.  Gently spread the fruit on the tray, but don't press down.  You want to keep the good tomato flavor in tact.  Cut the larger pieces in half so the trays fit properly in the dehydrator.  Set the temperature to 125 and let the tomatoes dry overnight.  The next morning, peel the tomatoes from the trays, flip the tomato pieces over, and allow dry for another 4-5 hours.  When brittle, remove and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Use a coffee grinder, a blender, or food processor to make a powder.  Sift the powder into a bowl and reprocess the bigger chunks again.  Store tomato powder in a canning jar with an oxygen pack.  Results:  Nine pints of tomatoes yielded 1/2 pint of tomato powder.  A scant tablespoon of powder is equivalent to 1 cup tomato sauce.  The powder is a beautiful red color and has a fresh tomato smell.  It dissolves easily in warm water - great for soups!

Finished Tomato Powder

You may be wondering how much tomato "trash" was left.  Less than a teaspoon!  I could not get this to grind any smaller; it was mostly some of the "unripe" parts of the tomatoes that were hard when I packed the jars. 


Dried Tomato "Trash"

All in all, I'm happy with the results and happier with the extra pantry space.  Good timing - there are a lot of tomatoes in the garden waiting to ripen.

Valentine's Day #1

My granddaughter spent Valentine's Day with me.  Her Mama and Daddy had a short weekend to themselves.  Magic Man was on the road, entertaining families for the Lover's holiday.  We will celebrate when he is home again.

Zoe just celebrated her 2nd birthday.  She told me at breakfast Thursday she wanted pizza and salad Friday night.  Not bad menu planning for a kiddo her age.  Pizza it is, so we made homemade pizza.  We got the recipe from "12 Tomatoes" and it is one of the best I've ever tasted.  The salad was a simple compilation of lettuce, cucumber slices, and shaved carrots.  It looked like a flower, but most of the flower was eaten before I could get the camera to the table. (Note to self - photo before placing dish in front of the kid)

Cheesy Pizza from 12 Tomatoes

We were up early (like 5 a.m. - yawn and streeeetch) Saturday, Zoe hungry for yesterday's egg harvest.  It was probably a good thing, we had a busy day ahead of us.  Shortly after breakfast we fed the chickens, then started Strawberry Jam.

We gave a good rinse to the berries at the kitchen sink.  Zoe is in charge of Quality Control.

High quality berries make the best jam.

 Then it was time to husk the berries.  I cut a little too much off one of the berries.  Zoe sifted through the chicken scraps and put the red parts back into the berry bowl.  She was very patient pulling off the green parts.

Zoe quickly learns to husk berries

 A quick spin in the food processor and the jam starts cooking.  The house is filled with the fresh scent of sweet berries.  There is no commercial fragrance that can compare.

Pectin and sugar in the fruit mixture.  Yummy.  Smells heavenly in here.

 It was not easy waiting to sample the finished product, but the wait was worth every second.  "No toast, spoon!" was Zoe's recommendation.  I have to agree.  Sometimes it is best to veer from the norm.

Nine pints should get us by until peaches are ready to harvest. 

It was time for lunch and a nap.  5 a.m. caught up with both of us.  The last activity of the day was planting the garden.  We planted strawberries (Magic Man and I never did get any from last year, so we  bought 12 more plants - I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but not very hopeful), a set of onions, potatoes, and cabbage.  Zoe loved breaking up the dirt clods.  She's the only person I know who loves this clay soil.

Tilling the old fashioned way and guarding strawberries

The chores are finally over.  We grabbed chairs and watched the chickens race from the pen and scratch in the fallen leaves.  They found worms and tender little greens.  We had a bowl of Blue Bell on the back porch swing and waited for Mama to come.

Zoe wasn't ready for the day to end, and neither was I.  But she'll come back soon to help plant more seeds.  Perhaps I'll be rested by then.  Maybe we'll make homemade bread to go with some jam.

Oh, and Mama - don't forget the hair ties next time (I never have the right ones on hand).  The little bands that held her cute pigtails don't last more than one use.  I hate sending my angel back home looking like a ragamuffin.

Love,
KoKo

P.S.  KoKo is the translated name given to me.  I wanted to be called Eko, Osage for grandmother.  Zoe couldn't quite get that name out.  KoKo is fine with me.   Magic Man answers to PawPaw.  even I can't say In' Dan Zhe for grandfather.