If you know the right people, they are free this time of year.  But what to do with all of them?

Use the dusty dehydrator.  Ours is on a shelf in the garage. Garage-dried tomatoes.

Instructions:

1.  Obtain give-away tomatoes.

2.  Decide whether to make tomato sauce or dehydrated tomatoes.  Both are easy.

3.  Decide on dehydrated tomatoes because you’ve never done that before.

4.  Slice the tomatoes in 1/4 inch slices (about 1/2 centimeter thick).

5. Lay slices on dehydrating trays so the air can circulate all around.

6.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, just like you were going to eat them fresh.  A little garlic powder or salt if you’d like. Sprinkle over the sink so there’s no mess.

7.  Dehydrate at 135 degrees F (57 degrees C) until crisp.  We dehydrated ours about 15 hours.

8.  Result:  A wonderfully CRISP dried tomato!

Just eat like a chip, pile with a topping like a cracker, or break into pieces and sprinkle onto a salad. They are actually very good, crisp, and sweet. I used Roma tomatoes that a friend gave to us. They dried very nicely!

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When my mom visited me a month or so ago, she looked at my garden and she said, “That just looks like a lot of work, Terri.” Mom and Dad always had a large garden when I was growing up. Somewhere along the line, they got tired. They resorted to boxes, bags, and metal cans for food. I see why. I know WHY it happened, and I’m not blaming her. This has been the first year I have had the real garden that I have always dreamed of. Do I have the stamina to eat real food forever? Do I have the stamina to keep growing my own food and preserving it? Do you? How are you doing? What have your own two hands “put up for winter”?