Drying Cherry Tomatoes in Your Food Dehydrator

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Earlier this spring my mother gave me 3 small “sweet 100” cherry tomato plants.  I was eager to plant them in my garden.  This would be my very first garden in my very first home (I had always rented before – and was unable to plant gardens).  My three little tomato plants became very large tomato plants (I was pruning them back regularly according to everything I had read).  The plants were tied up using about three stakes per tomato plant and metal tomato support racks.  None of this was enough to hold up the plants.

Once the tomatoes came on, the plants grew over 10 feet tall easily.  And the weight of the plant and tomatoes was just too much for the supports.  The supports are now bent and are at very awkward angles, but most of the tomatoes are up off the ground.  The tomatoes started blooming and have not quit.  It is September 22 (first day of fall) and the plants still have 100’s of blooms on them.  I have harvested gallons of cherry tomatoes. 

These plants should not have been called sweet 100 – they should’ve been called sweet 1000’s.  I have been unable to use my sidewalk to my backyard for several months now and have had to resort to climbing over our support wall to get into my yard. 

Lessons learned are to plant the tomatoes as far from the sidewalk as possible next year and to have a steady supply of “tomato lovers” to pawn the excess tomatoes on.  I am also going to find a slew of cherry tomato recipes for next year.  Some of my favorite cherry tomato recipes are the tomato caprese salad (with mozzarella) and sautéed cherry tomatoes in herbs over linguini. 

I have a new fruit/vegetable dehydrator that had never been used.  When I came in from the tomato plants with another half gallon of tomatoes yesterday, I decided it was time to get it out and try my hand at drying cherry tomatoes. 

How I did it:

1.  first I washed and drained the tomatoes and removed the stems.

2.  I brought a sauce pan of water to a boil and quickly dipped the tomatoes in the boiling water.  I had to do this in batches due to the number of tomatoes.

3.  I allowed them to cool (no I did not dip them in ice cold water to stop the cooking).  Due to the small size of the tomatoes they cooled extremely quickly.

4.  I removed the skins, they kind of just slipped out (it was quicker than I thought it would be)

5.  I sliced the tomato in half, leaving a small area of connection so that they would open up but not be completely separated.

6.  I brushed a very small amount of oil on the dehydrating tray to prevent the tomatoes from sticking.

7.  I turned the dehydrator on medium for about 3 hours and then to low overnight and I turned it off early in the morning ( a total of about 15 hours)

8.  The dried cherry tomatoes are so sweet and chewy, it was like chewing on candy (but not completely)

9.  In order to keep the cherry tomatoes for longer I placed them in a small container and poured olive oil over them.  Now I can use them in recipes to add some great flavor.  I also did this to prevent me from eating them all up before the day was over.

The flavor is so intense it should make a great addition to many dishes.  Now that I know how easy it is to make (although a bit messy), I’ll be making more… until the frost kills them off.

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Published in globewatcherblog.blogspot.com Sept 22, 2013

Copyright By Christine Haines

Photo: by Christine Haines