Katie and I are serious about preserving the harvest we enjoy from the UNF. You name it and we preserve it. We like to call ourselves urban homesteaders prepping for the you know what.
We heavily utilize canning, both water bath and pressure canning, and dehydrating. The advantage of this strategy is that the preserved harvest is shelf stable.
In the past canning our homegrown tomatoes has always been a favorite. Seeing our storage racks full of canned tomatoes arranged by color was impressive.
But this all changed last year when I was listening to my Florida friend, author and the host of Better Lawns & Gardens Teresa Watkins, interview a cool gardener named Leah Brooks. They were discussing Leah’s idea of dehydrating and grinding the tomatoes instead of canning.
To say the least I was intrigued and I jumped in with both feet. So in 2022 the tomatoes that weren’t eaten fresh or shared with our neighbors were dehydrated. I call the end result tomato dust and a single 1-quart jar of tomato dust takes the place of 8 quarts of canned tomatoes. Talk about a space saver. As a result I’ve started dehydrating almost everything. I use a couple of Excalibur 9-tray dehydrators because I like the temperature control.
Now for using the tomato dust in recipes, the rehydration ratios are easy
- Tomato Paste, equal parts tomato dust and hot water
- Tomato Sauce, 1 part tomato dust : 2 parts hot water
- Tomato Juice for Bloody Mary Mix, I’m still working on this one……..
The process of of making tomato dust is easy:
Always start with fresh tomatoes like these Siberian heirloom tomatoes harvested on May 17th
Slice and arrange in single layer on your dehydrator racks
Set dehydrator thermostat at 125F and for about 24 hours
Put dehydrated tomatoes in blender
Pulse blender until….
The end result: Tomato Dust
I store the tomato dust in Mason jars and always place a desiccant pack in the jar to help control moisture.
Gary Grows at Heritage Cottage 