I’ve been busy drying tomatoes and putting up our blackberries and blueberries. Before I write more about that, Kristina had asked what the tomatoes look like when they are dried. I’ve never looked at them side by side, and thought it would be neat to see how they compare.
Here is our favorite to dry – Juliet. I like them because they are large enough that we get a good bit of tomato, but they’re not so large they take a long time to dry. Also, the Juliet is an ok fresh eating tomato, but a great one once it’s dried. I cut Juliet up into quarters.
Then we love Sungolds to just pop in our mouth, but they are so good dried. They are small so I only cut them in half.
I just realized that I should have put a ruler on the dried ones. Too late now. They are vacuum sealed and put away for winter! We dry others but this gives you an idea of how their size changes in the dehydrator.
Now to the blackberries. I know I’ve been posting quite a bit about them, but they are just everywhere! I’m amazed at the Apache. They are huge!
So I’ve been making juice to freeze for more blackberry jello.
And made another batch of Blackberry Syrup. They will stay in the basement fridge for three weeks, and then I’ll put lids on them.
Besides giving some blackberries away, I freeze them. Just rinse them off, lay them out on a metal pan, and put them in the freezer.
Then bag them up for their final destination until I need them.
Blueberries are slowly coming to an end. I’m only harvesting them every other day now. There will be more tomatoes to dry and freeze and then peppers. We’ll pick up some peaches at a local orchard soon and then apples in the fall.
It’s a busy time here at Happy Acres.
I have tried to sun dry tomatoes, but they no matter how tightly I wrap them with mesh, the flies get into them. I stopped doing this awhile back because I’m not crazy about drying them in the oven. They just don’t have the same taste.
I really enjoyed your recent soap post. Good tips, too. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve made soap, but your post rekindled the desire to make it again.
I use a dehydrator to dry our tomatoes. I agree that it would be hard to keep the flies off of them. Also, it takes way too long in an oven. Using the dehydrator just takes all of the water out of them which leaves an intense flavor. Then we heat a small cup of water in the microwave for a few seconds, place the dried tomatoes in the cup and let them set for about ten minutes. They plump up a bit and we can enjoy our harvest long after the growing season is over. Oh, I’m so glad I might have rekindled your desire to make soap again. I’d love to read about your next soap! Thanks for dropping by.
Mmh, the Juliets look really yummy! The Sungolds look funny dried, very unlike the dried tomatoes we can buy here. And all those blackberries look soo good as well. It’s amazing that all of those are already ripe where you live. Here our tomatoes are still green and I believe the blackberries in the woods will not be ripe for another two months if i remember correctly from last year 🙂
Maybe you wrote it somewhere already, but why do you wait 3 weeks to put lids on the syrup jars?