It's early in the season, but we're already getting more tomatoes from our 6 plants than we can eat fresh. I enjoy canning, but I don't really want to steam up an already steamy house every couple of days for 3 pints of tomatoes, so The Hub (he of the Solar Pool Heater Invention) built me this:
A dehydrator. It's made from window screens (2 layers, so that the bugs can't land on the screen where the fruit goes), 2" x 2"s, legs made of screws (for good ventilation), and a plexiglass top. The Hub didn't build the dog- he came courtesy of The Son, who is gone for the weekend, so we inherited the pooch.
We quartered and scooped the insides from today's ripe harvest, and arranged them on the screen,
and saved the insides for supper. Yummm.... And then we put the dehydrator in the sun on the front porch and waited.
This was after 8 hours. They're not totally *done* yet. We brought the frame in at sundown last night, and will set it out after lunch today (no point in rehydrating them in the wet morning air), and I suspect they'll be dry by supper tonight. I see many sun-dried tomato pizzas in our future. Also sun-dried jalapenos, bell peppers, and basil leaves. And anything else I can think of that needs dehydrating.
And how hot did it get inside the dehydrator, you ask?
2 comments:
I have one lonely green tomato on my bushes. As you probably know, we here in the northwest corner are having a very mild summer, in contrast with the rest of the country. If fact, it rained yesterday and is threatening to do so again right now.
joanna- I don't remember anyone successfully growing tomatoes in Snohomish. Either it wasn't warm enough, or the slugs got them
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