# Dehydrating tomatoes



## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

I've been dehydrating tomatoes for more than 3 weeks now 24/7. We have had a harvest of over 700 already, from less than 30 plants. (I can't believe it, can you, it seems kind of unreal. I'm both thankful and exhausted.)

I'm using a 9 tray Excalibur (using 4 trays at a time). It takes longer than my convection oven set on dehydrate. It takes about 2 to 3 days instead of 1-2 days. Does that sound right to you? (about 2 gallons of tomatoes, cut, cleaned, squeezed out per load full)

I have 5 gallons of cleaned and squeezed out tomatoes waiting to be dehydrated in the freezer--after the season is done. Another hundred or more calling out to fruit flies asking them to multiply. I think I might cry.:sob:
I squeeze out the juice and seeds, spread them flat skin side down so they don't stick. I just yelled at a fly because my hands were too wet full of juice to swat it away. I yelled at a fly. I still can't believe I yelled at a fly.:shrug:

A little help?


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

What do you do with the juice? There's a lot of nutrition in the juice.

I yelled at a fly yesterday. Stupid thing kept biting my leg.

Great harvest. Something found my Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and eats half a tomato leaving the other half to rot. I've had to toss about 2 dozen already. Ate only 5 so far.


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## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

Danaus29 said:


> What do you do with the juice? There's a lot of nutrition in the juice.
> 
> I yelled at a fly yesterday. Stupid thing kept biting my leg.
> 
> Great harvest. Something found my Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and eats half a tomato leaving the other half to rot. I've had to toss about 2 dozen already. Ate only 5 so far.


Thanks! If you come over I'll give you some tomatoes!!! 
There is 1/2 gallon of tops/bottoms and juice and seeds for every 2 gallons of tomatoes. I put that in the compost pile. Had the harvest been smaller I might have conserved the juice, I'm just overwhelmed now.

Oh good I'm not the only one to yell at a fly......I felt so stupid yelling at it.

I'm thinking of growing some big heirloom tomatoes. This year it was just Roma, San Marzano, Beefsteak, and early girl. No early girls next year. They are too watery. The Romas are very dry, the San Marzanos are a nice balance.
I canned some salsa but I wasn't impressed with it--it seemed watery to me even after squeezing out the water and seeds.


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## libertygirl (Jul 18, 2011)

I SO understand where you're coming from FITB...! Tons of tomatoes this year, and HUGE beef steaks at that (lots of 2 pounders). Came across an excellent salsa recipe though so it's on with the salsa making.... dehydrating...and freezing sauce..and I hate those darn biting flies too!!!


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

I slice them thick, they dehydrate quicker. We use 5 gallon a year, some ground fine, chopped up in dried vegy mix and rehydrated for soups and stews....James


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## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

libertygirl said:


> I SO understand where you're coming from FITB...! Tons of tomatoes this year, and HUGE beef steaks at that (lots of 2 pounders). Came across an excellent salsa recipe though so it's on with the salsa making.... dehydrating...and freezing sauce..and I hate those darn biting flies too!!!


LibertyGirl, thank you. I felt alone in the world, really, me alone with hundreds of tomatoes and fruit flies. Everyone is talking about bad tomato harvests and I'm drowning in them this year.
Do you have a good salsa recipe to share? I probably should have added some paste to thicken them up but I'll most likely grind up some dehydrated ones this next time.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

jwal10 said:


> I slice them thick, they dehydrate quicker. We use 5 gallon a year, some ground fine, chopped up in dried vegy mix and rehydrated for soups and stews....James


"thick"?


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## Rockytopsis (Dec 29, 2007)

FITB, I now have tomato envy, I did get some to dehydrate and canned some but wanted more. We had so much rain here that the plants were struggling to stay afloat.

I slice mine thick and lightly spray the trays with Pam and let it run till crispy then store in freezer bags. 

After I spray the Pam I take a paper towel and wipe the trays so that the stuff is spread evenly and lightly. Works great. 

Nancy


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## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

Rockytopsis said:


> FITB, I now have tomato envy, I did get some to dehydrate and canned some but wanted more. We had so much rain here that the plants were struggling to stay afloat.
> 
> I slice mine thick and lightly spray the trays with Pam and let it run till crispy then store in freezer bags.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the tip on spraying the trays.
I usually just slice the big tomatoes on the equator in half before I squeeze them out and the roma types in half from top to bottom before I squeeze them. Then just pull the halves open and kind of flatten them out on the tray.
I store them in freezer bags too.


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## cjean (May 1, 2007)

I slice them about 1/8" thick (at least not over 1/4") and squeeze the seeds and juice out. It takes about 10-11 hours in the Excalibur, to crispy stage, and nine trays full will pack into a quart jar, which I then vacuum seal. 

We have been totally blessed with hundreds of tomatoes this year, too! Too much...I just gave away a 30 lb box today, and it didn't make a dent. This is only from 18 plants.


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## WestFork (Dec 20, 2012)

A great year in the northwest for tomatoes, too. We've been eating them fast as we can. We're going to freeze a bunch by just popping them in a ziploc bag. Great for cooking during the winter when prices are high!


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## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

cjean said:


> I slice them about 1/8" thick (at least not over 1/4") and squeeze the seeds and juice out. It takes about 10-11 hours in the Excalibur, to crispy stage, and nine trays full will pack into a quart jar, which I then vacuum seal.
> 
> We have been totally blessed with hundreds of tomatoes this year, too! Too much...I just gave away a 30 lb box today, and it didn't make a dent. This is only from 18 plants.


cjean, I appreciate the size of the slices given with the number of hours it took to dry--for comparison. This last (certainly not the last last) batch, we sprayed the trays with Pam to get them to pop off a little better and flattened out the tomatoes a little more. 

It seems like if they dry too slowly, the fleshy parts get too dark-almost black, and if they are drying too fast, the red towards the edges goes to a dark red color (and I'm afraid it gets bitter). I snip off the imperfect looking parts with a scissors.

I've given away hundreds of tomatoes in the past few days, which takes the weight off. We are considering growing 1/4 the number of plants next year because we've already dried so many gallons of them for the next couple years. That opens up garden space next year for other interesting things! 

Tomorrow, I'm going to just roast some with peppers and onions--for a sauce.
Thanks for all the tips, everyone!


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## GrannyG (Mar 26, 2005)

I slice mine thin....sprinkle with kosher salt, black pepper, and basil......great to snack on or to use in BBQ rubs


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## cjean (May 1, 2007)

Some of the thinnest crispiest ones I pack in a small jar, cover with olive oil (and maybe some dried basil) and store in the fridge. Oh, YUM! Delicious on sandwiches, or just straight out of the jar.


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## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

Tomatoes, still adding up, now up to over 1100+.
Still dehydrating them. The pam on the trays really helped a lot.
I wish I had had a couple more dehydrators this year.

Also roasting them (350 degrees F) after squeezing out the seeds and liquid (about a gallon and a half at a time), slipping off any of the peels that brown once cooled. Scooping out of the roasting pan, leaving liquids behind and using a hand blender to smooth it into a beautiful sauce. Adding a bit of salt and 1 tsp sugar. Packaging for pizza sauce or to make tomato soup, in the freezer.


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## Pokletu (Aug 7, 2013)

It makes sense, but do you really have to crush the juice out? That's got to carry most of their nutrition with them.

Can't you just cut them a little thinner, and dry them juice-in?


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## Rockytopsis (Dec 29, 2007)

Pokletu said:


> It makes sense, but do you really have to crush the juice out? That's got to carry most of their nutrition with them.
> 
> Can't you just cut them a little thinner, and dry them juice-in?


I don't squeeze the juice or seeds out, slice and dehydrate.

Nancy


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Rockytopsis said:


> I don't squeeze the juice or seeds out, slice and dehydrate.
> 
> Nancy


Me too.


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## Pokletu (Aug 7, 2013)

Very encouraging. Thanks Nancy, Where...


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Oh I just got a great idea!!! I've got a tomato plant with the tiniest little grape tomatoes which taste totally wonderful but there are way too many for us to eat fresh. I could freeze them whole and this winter add them to mac and cheese or pasta salad!


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## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

Lots of good ideas. I appreciate hearing all of the responses.

I've never had a year like this.
We're ending up at near 1700 tomatoes, it's really a rare year.
The dehydrator has been running now for 2 month, TWO MONTHS.
It's crazy stuff.

I have my last 100 tomatoes ripening up on the counter and a whole lot of swiss chard to be dried and the poor dehydrator gets no rest.
I was re-reading this thread and realized, I have 4 or so gallons of tomatoes in the freezer I still need to dry or make into sauce. I had forgotten about them, :teehee:. That will take me well into November.

I finished drying some peppermint today, and I'm back to tomatoes again, I guess. I feel powerless against the tomatoes. Have you seen the movie, "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes"? I saw it before the Rocky Horror Picture Show back in the 1980's. I'm living it now.:shrug:

Truly if we hadn't had a banner year in tomatoes, I wouldn't have wasted the juice but if I hadn't squeezed out the juices, I'd have been dehydrating them until April.

Next time, if there ever is a next time, I'll put the tomato liquid/seeds/tops and bottoms through a strainer, and put that juice into containers in the freezer and use it for soups and stews. I made a great killer beef tips yesterday and I could have used the juice in the sauce. The problem is the juice just mucks up the bottom of the dehydrator and slows down drying the tomatoes.

That will be 3 months of dehydrating tomatoes. This wasn't in the plans.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

I turn them over about every hour for the first 4 hours, and once more at 6, they are dry in 8 or so. I slice them about 1/2" thick....James


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## DryHeat (Nov 11, 2010)

Here in a desert I never grow enough to worry about preserving those, but there are occasional ethnic mart sales of Romas in the 4lb/$1 range and I go crazy buying those and dehydrating them. What I've had work best is to quarter the Romas, lay them out in the dehydrator trays, sprinkle a bit of salt over them, spray with Pam (or WalMart generic olive oil spray) lightly, then dust some Italian herb/spice mix lightly then dehydrate. I've been storing in FoodSaver vacuumed bags or mason jars. Only downside is DW loves the stuff in her stir-frys and soups but has no concept of how many original pounds of tomatoes she's using. Lol. I've seen it commented that Romas are the only strain with enough fiber relative to moisture that they dehydrate or sun dry effectively.


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