Do It Yourself Sun Dried Tomatoes Winkyfarm

Recently I have been admiring Lotte’s @mykitchenstories.dk tomatoes series, and all her beautiful moody tomatoes images.

As I was salivating these delicious fleshy, juicy emblem of Summer, it just dawned on me that I completely forgot to share my bumper Summer tomatoes bounty, and now were in Autumn 🙈!

So here they are 🍅, to remind me how much I’m going to miss these little guys as the cooler weather starts to settle in 😢.

How To make Sun Dried Tomatoes Outside

This Summer was not as hot and horrendous as last year, but I was still able to make my own sun dried tomatoes outside in the backyard.

It’s a pretty simply process, just slice the tomatoes thinly and in this case cut the cherry tomatoes in half, place them individually in a single layer, evenly spaced them on some sort of screen to allow air flow and let the sun do its thing. Remembering to flip them over every now and then so they can dry evenly.

I put them in the garage overnight and brought them back out in the day.

Be sure to cover your sun dried tomatoes with either a thin muslin cloth or some sort of clear screen such as glass to protect it from dust and any unwanted taste testers to your tomatoes.

They are ready when they are dry, yet soft and pliable like a dried apricot. Anything still too soft or if the weathers looking to change, I finish it off in the dehydrator.

If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can finish them off in the oven, on a low setting roughly 100°C or 212°F.

Store them in an air tight jar or container, in a cool dark place and they will last for months.

So Many Uses

Marinate them with oil, a bit of chilli or garlic and use it as an antipasto. Grind it up as a seasoning to flavour chips or use as a marinade. Chuck them in any dish to give it that concentrated tomatoes flavour, or simply soak them in water to rehydrate and use them as you would fresh.

My favourite, as a decorative garnish to a delicious Bloody Mary.

Now there’s an idea to finish this Friday 😋