The Newest Age of Sundried Tomatoes

Sundried Tomatoes...they're sweet, yet a little tart. They add the most delicious beginning, middle and end to any wanna be cream sauce! When they're freshly made, from the end of the growing season wilted tomatoes, that extra sweetness, from the hot kiss of the north Texas sun, is to die for! And, many have! The last few, still trying to hang in there, on their vine, I let those eventually fall away, to re-seed the circle.

This is just 6 weeks ago! The ripened fruits have been harvested; they are so sweet! Heirloom organic yellow pear tomatoes...I've let several over-ripened fruits fall, to see if they'll come up as volunteers. The Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes have fallen over their supports, from their own sheer weight...the side shoots are growing toward the sun, now, in a continued effort. All of this going on in the Garden of Que Sera, Sera! And beautiful morning glories on the other side of the round. It's scattered, and random, but beautiful.

Anyway, as would happen, things had to be harvested all at one time. And some started wilting, past the point of salad. I was wanting to do the oven dried tomatoes, but the temps in the 100's says, don't heat up the house!

I'd frozen most of the overstock of the tomatoes. These were the holdouts from this week. Our temps have been in the 100's for several days, so I was thinking how to dehydrate without buying more equipment...it's just a few tomatoes, after all! And, I am certainly, NOT turning on that damned oven! There's always the sun, but, oh those flies! I don't have the mesh covers, trying not to spend money!

Later in the evening, I was thinking about dehydrating...yeah, it's that great! ...it blows warm air. Over a meshed area where the food is set. Well, so is an air fryer! Right? Worth a try!

I just rinsed, dried and wedged the tomatoes. Tossed them in a bowl with some olive oil, salt and pepper, to coat well.

Spread them in the fryer basket in single layer. This method is NOT practical for large batches! Save those for after the weather cools down!

I've never tried this before, so I started at 250 for 30 minutes, to see how far it went. I was really pleased!

This is after another 40 minutes. Getting closer, but quite a bit of moisture still there. I turned them all over, at this point.

This is after a final 15 minutes. They're leathery, but still have moisture. I packed them in a quarter pint jar with a little fresh oregano and rosemary, topped with olive oil. These will hold for a few weeks in the fridge, or you can freeze them for 6 months, or so! Summer available, all year round...well, the flavors anyway! Summer can keep his darned heat!

Until next time, my friends, Steem on!