I know. I just can’t stop singing her praises! After pouring my first cup of coffee yesterday, I got dressed (long pants, tshirt, sunhat and Off slathered all over my body) and went down to find our sweet Juliets. It was another drying day for these beauties. I had no idea that I would end up with 5 pounds of them.
Once they were weighed for our harvest total, they went for a swim.
Then it was off to the cutting board.
This is where I have to talk about why I love them for drying. They are nice and firm, unlike a couple of the other small tomatoes we dry. As for eating tomatoes, they taste alright, but I’d much rather eat a Ramapo or even an Early Girl any day. But they are the greatest and sweetest drying tomatoes.
Here they are all ready to head to the dehydrator.
The five pounds took up three and one half sheets. I did have a tray full of a few other tomatoes that had been waiting their turn on the counter. So I had one half tray that was empty. I could have walked down and picked more Juliets, but thought they would hold for the next drying session. Or since we already have 13 bags in the freezer we might try roasting and then freezing them.
We did take a drive over to Owensboro, Kentucky the other day, just across the river to buy some peaches at Reid’s Orchard. We make this trip a couple times this time of the year – for peaches now and later for apples.
We usually freeze them and use them in smoothies. That is, if we have any left after eating them!
I am soooo jealous that you have a dehydrator! how cool is that! hey, send out your smoothie recipe, that sounds wonderful too…
Hi Cindy Sue,
Hubby posted the smoothie recipe on his blog. See it here:
http://www.ourhappyacres.com/2009/10/yes-we-have-bananas/
MMm, peaches! I love them in smoothies too. And the dehydrator is pretty much a necessity here. There is no better way to store peppers for future use in sauces and soups than drying them. Our carrots also dry nicely, we slice them fairly thin and they reconsitute in soups and stews wonderfully. They take up so much less space without the water in them. and the lack of water seems to stop the aging process, so they stay sweet.
Ellie, I never have dried carrots since we never seem to grow enough of them to dry. Dave puts them in the veggie soup mix we freeze, and we eat them raw but never have an abundance to freeze. I’ve seen those packages of dried veggies at Whole Foods and thought it would be neat to put together something like that for snacks in the winter. Or use in soup. Thanks for the info on carrots.
Oh wow! I love to cook and garden. As soon as I laid my eyes on those beautiful tomatoes I was in love with your blog. I love dried fruit. Last week I had dried Mangos. I could eat about a pound of dried Mangos in one setting if I’m not careful. They are delicious.
Those Juliets do look yummy, fresh as well as dried! And peach smoothies, mmmh 🙂