When we first established our potager garden on our property high up in the hills of Mount Perry, we did not envisage that we would be able to continue to reap what we sowed that initial year. You see, we sowed a handful of cherry tomato seeds into our potager garden, and any spare soil we could find, in our flower beds, in our burgeoning rainforest and in pots around the water tanks. We nurtured the seedlings and they produced vast amounts of bright red sun-ripened sweet fruit. We had a habit of discarding any split fruit by throwing it as far as we could (a bit of a game for young and old), and each season thereafter we have had a range of different types of volunteer cherry tomato bushes pop up in the oddest of places (no surprises there)!
One plant in particular at the low side of the chicken yard is an abundant producer of tiny sweet red cherry tomatoes. It is from this bush that we collected the ingredients for our sundried cherry tomato recipe. I loosely call it a recipe, as there is no cutting, measuring, mixing, cooking, or setting. The process simply involves drying the tomatoes in the sun on a surface that promotes air flow over a period of approximately four (4) days and then packing the squishy yet leathery textured tomatoes into sterilised containers, popping in a clove or two of garlic and a sprig of rosemary, and filling the jars to the brim with your favourite olive oil. It truly is a simple process anyone can do.
Image 1: Freshly picked cherry tomatoes
Sundried Cherry Tomatoes
Preparation Time - 4 days
Cooking Time - 0
Ingredients
Cherry tomatoes - as many ripe cherry tomatoes as you have, destemmed and left whole
1 pinch of Himalayan salt
1 garlic clove per jar - peeled
1 sprig of rosemary per jar
Olive oil - enough to cover tomatoes in the jars
Method
Collect the cherry tomatoes, destem them and lay out on a screen or permeable surface in the sun to dry.
Add a pinch of salt to the tomatoes before drying. This may take up to four (4) days to accomplish and the result will be a flexible, rubbery tomato texture. A sunny and windy weather forecast is best.
Alternatively, or if the weather is inclement, layer the base of a baking tray with cherry tomatoes, sprinkle a small amount of salt of your choice over the tomatoes and bake in oven on low until they are of a leathery texture.
Just prior to the tomatoes being dried enough to bottle, sterilise jars and lids in a method of choice. Here is a link from Cornersmith
Peel a clove of garlic and add a sprig of rosemary to each jar.
Top up the jars with quality olive oil and tighten the lids.
The tomatoes are ready to eat immediately or may be stored on the shelf out of sunlight, and then refrigerated once opened.
Image 2: Day 1 of drying, before I remembered to remove the stems. At this point the tomatoes had already begun the drying process so removing stems was a sticky experience. I recommend doing so just after the tomatoes are picked instead.
I used an unused exercise trampoline, washed and dried. It was a perfect choice. The days were windy so there was no bugs hanging around.
Image 3: Bottled sundried cherry tomatoes, four days after picking the sweet delights from the bush on our property
Share and enjoy!
Sonia Petersen - Barefoot FarmHer
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