One Easy Way to Preserve the Harvest: Dried Tomatoes

All right. I may have gone overboard with the tomatoes. We have a humongous bowl of them sitting on our kitchen counter, and as I look out my window, I can see plenty more red, orange, and yellow tomatoes waiting to be harvested. Soon, I will be buried in them.

So last week, I decided to preserve at least a few of those tomatoes. I love dried tomatoes on pizza and in pasta dishes, so I usually dry a few batches every summer. It's really easy to do, and the house smells just delicious while the tomatoes are drying. Because it's so humid during the summer here, I rely on the oven, but you can also easily dry tomatoes the natural way -- in the sun.

What never fails to surprise me is how a huge bowl of tomatoes dries down into one small bowl of dried tomatoes. I know, I know -- that's the nature (and part of the point) in drying food. But it doesn't look like nearly enough, so this week I'll be making another batch. If you want to learn to make your own, check out my article about how to make dried tomatoes.

Next up -- preserving those buckets of green beans I've been harvesting. I'll have ideas for you on that very topic later this week.