First, a note:
Thanks for the kind emails I’ve received from some of you. Life’s coming at me hard and fast but I’ll have news soon. At the moment, I have tomatoes. I hope you’ll take them as a fair exchange. Trust me when I tell you that they are worth it.
Now, on to the food.
A friend of mine recently asked me why I was planning on going to California.
“For the tomatoes,” I said. I was sort of joking, but not really.
I’ve written before about the dry farmed tomatoes grown by Joe Schirmer at Dirty Girl Farm in Santa Cruz. They are grown without much water, which makes for a smaller tomato with a thick skin and more tomato flavor than you expect in such a small package. They are sweet and intense and utterly addictive.
They’re addictive enough to make me head south at the end of the summer, to stock up.
I have a tomato ritual, you see. Towards the end of each summer, I leave Seattle for Northern California. The fog has burned off San Francisco by then and Indian Summer is in full swing. The days are sunny and breezy, the markets are bursting with late summer produce, the tomatoes are to die for.
I love you Seattle, but you don’t let us easily grow great tomatoes. Sorry, but it’s true.
Each September/October, I buy a forty-pound box of dry farmed tomatoes from Dirty Girl and dry them. This is the peak of tomato season, you see. They’re never going to taste any better than they do right now. And don’t even get me started on those sad, sorry excuses for tomatoes sold in January. Last winter I watched a guy walk out the grocery store with a bag of hard orange orbs that were masquerading as tomatoes and I was tempted to ask him “Why bother?”
I didn’t say anything—because while I am a snob about tomatoes, I am not rude—but I couldn’t help wonder why he didn’t just cook something with vegetables that were actually in season. That rock hard tomato grown in some far-off country wasn’t even going to taste good.
But we love our flavors, even when the food is not in season. That’s why I preserve my tomatoes. I cut them in two, sprinkle some salt on them, and dry them low and slow until they are mostly wrinkled but still a little moist and soft in the middle. I don’t like tomatoes that are hard and wrinkly and have to be reconstituted in hot water.
I’ve been doing this for a number of years now. I started out using the stove, set on a low heat (I use 170°). It takes hours, I should warn you. I’m not going to give you an exact time, because it will vary based on the size of your tomatoes, the reliability of your oven, and the phase of the moon (just joking, but you get the idea). Eight hours is not unheard of. Sometimes I do this overnight.
Last summer, when I took these pictures, I used a food dehydrator. I actually drove to California with a dehydrator in the back of my car. That’s how addicted I am to these tomatoes.
In the end, I prefer the oven to the dehydrator. I think it retains a bit more of the moisture. It also seems to take less time. I have a seven-tray dehydrator and fully loaded it took me about a week to do a case of tomatoes. And the house smelled like a pizza parlor the entire time.
Once I’m done with the tomatoes I pack them up in a ziplock bag and keep them in the freezer for use all winter long in soup and stews and pasta dishes. I toss a few into hummus when I make it myself, I use them in salads and with cooked beans. You can chop them up into a sauce or spread for crostini. You may be surprised to find how many uses you can think up for them.
But most of all it’s a way to preserve that amazing tomato flavor at the peak of the season. They’re ripe right now, cheaper than they ever will be. Grab some of those tomatoes and preserve them.
I promise you, on some dark winter evening in January, you’ll be glad you did.
RECIPE NOTES:
• I use medium sized Early Girl tomatoes, but you can do this with cherry tomatoes, roma (plum-shaped) and larger. I would avoid the big, bulgy heirloom variety, as they’re not best suited to this sort of drying.
• I line my baking sheets with tin foil first, to help keep things clean.
• Some people brush their cut tomatoes with olive oil. I’ve tried this in the past but now I don’t bother.
• I do add a sprinkle of kosher salt once the tomatoes are on the baking sheet. You can also add herbs if you like. I don’t bother.
• As I mentioned, the size of your tomatoes with determine how long they need to bake. Cherry tomatoes can take an hour or two, others can take as long as 8 hours, perhaps longer. Keep an eye on them and take them out with this soft in the middle but dried around the edges.
• I bake my tomatoes on 170°, but other people go higher—200-250°. You can experiment and see what you like best.
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These are gorgeous! Love your way of treating these like the gems they are.
nice post
Oh, my gosh.
This weekend will be my end of the summer tomato ritual.
I will go to the Moses Farm (yes, the Grandma Moses farm) and pick two bushes of tomatoes to put up for the winter.
This is a beautiful post.
I saw Judy Collins in the Temple of Dendar at The Metropolitan Museum tonight, and she reminded us all of what Leonard Cohen says. There's a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in. Sending you lots of good thoughts and plenty of light.
This is too funny! I have a contest that ends tomorrow at midnight. The "mystery" earned four guesses. The funny thing is you've supplied the answer.
I love tomatoes that are picked so fresh they still carry the heat of the Texas sun. I've never dried them though. I simply do without until the next growing season. My hat is off to you.
Glad you're back.
Nice post, Tea. I love the CA tomatoes so much I brought some to France with me when I came a week ago because I couldn't bear to leave the ones that were ripe behind.
Since you freeze them anyway, I'm wondering why you don't just quarter part of the batch and freeze them like that? I've used that in the past for that fresh tomato flavor in winter — great for tomato soup.
This year I made baked tomato sauce. Pretty much an over night task, at least in my gas oven. Another way to condense and intensify those great 'maters.
I've missed your posts. Hope all is well with you.
x0 N2
Those look wonderful! Glad you're back! I've missed your posts!!
Thank you for this lovely post & idea. I love tomatoes and while I've roasted/dried them for recipes, I never thought to dry them and freeze them for using in the winter months.
Note from Seattle: THIS WAS A VERY CRUEL POST, #$!!@#!!!!!!!
I'm off to the kitchen to make green tomato chutney… and perhaps I'd deign to swap you a jar for a small bag of these. Maybe.
I'm so glad you're back! I was really missing your posts. I was about to beg you to come back
Thanks for the wonderful idea with tomatoes. I have always wondering if I could freeze dried produce and now I know I can! I think I shall be going to the farmer's market this weekend to stock up.
Oh man these looks delicious. I may have to take a trip north soon
New Orleans has "Creole Tomatoes." If you purchase them at the right time they are very good. However, your tomatoes look so delicious that I would love to try them. I will check to see if they can be shipped.
Glad you're back. Look forward to hearing from you.
I adore slow-roasted Early Girls and have played around with my recipe for a while. I like your route of going without olive oil and would like to give it a try. I'd recently been seeing people turning their tomato halves upside down, but it did not work well for me. Face-up next round. I've tried slow roasting San Marzano tomatoes and Peach Boys too. Both were pretty good, but Early Girls are tough to beat. I better buy a nice portion and get to it. Time is running short. Enjoy your stash. As always, thank you for sharing your good taste. Side note: The Peach Boys are exquisite fresh! My new favorite. I believe I bought them from the Happy Boy Farms stand at the Fort Mason market.
Ooooh…can you believe I've never thought of doing this? The photos are gorgeous!
Really liked this post, definitely trying it when I get hold of some fresh, in season tomatoes and then every other veggie delight I can think of!
Wow, I have to give that you have passion for your tomatoes. I do not blame you, they looks delicious and healthier than anything you will buy even from organic!
Go girl!
There is a full moon out, and I have a large batch of dry farmed early girls. They're in the oven now…at a touch below 200F….thanks for the inspiration.
Normally, I just freeze tomatoes whole and use them throughout winter (I canned tomatoes one year, and it wasn't worth the bother for me)…but I like this option!
Any chance this works with green tomatoes?? That's about all I have in my garden this year. Sniff.
I'm so glad I found this! I have a garden full of tomatoes I don't know what to do with. I've already made all the salsa we can take.
Thank you, again, for being awesome.
How do you store them? Freezing?
Stephanie–I don't think green tomatoes would work–they don't have such great flavor. Sorry!
Ali–lucky you with a garden of tomatoes! Can I come help you dispose of them?
Adena–yes, in the freezer. I take mine out a little soft, so I freeze them. If you want to dry them until they're hard you could keep them in a jar, but any remaining moisture will make them spoil. Freeze them to be safe.
SOUNDS GREAT. I USUALLY JUST CUT AND FREEZE IN BAGS. DRYING MUST CUT THE SPACE USED IN FREEZER. I'LL SURELY HAVE TO TRY THIS. THANKS.
Love this, I am going to do this tomorrow with wonderful Hanover tomatoes. Thank you.