What to do with tomatos?

[bodrighy]

We are now up to 49 plants so any ideas about what to do with tomatos would be good. We use fresh, do all the chutney pickle things but have heard about drying and freezing but never done it. How do you dry tomatos in this country? Even here in Cornwall I wouldn't have thought that there was enough sun to dry fuit or perhaps there is?

Pete

[Enormous Sage]

You can make them into a tomato pasta type sauce and freeze it in batches.

There's a good recipie here on the Jamie Oliver website.

I tried pickling some tomatoes last year, but they didn't turn out very well.

[Penny Lane]

Don't know about drying them sorry, guessing you would need a dehydrator for that in this country!

I have heard that tomatoes bottle very well though, if that's another option for you?

[theabsinthefairy]

Toms do bottle very well, also cook into passata and bottle or freeze, or reduce to create an almost puree and then bottle or freeze, I have tried sundrying them, but didn't really get enough sun or toms last year, however, those that did dry, I put under oil in jars and they have kept very well, also very intense flavour.

[snapdragon]

They can be dried - I've seen solar dehydrators - but will need to search for the link as my bookmarks have dropped off.
But juice is important I think - so bottling either whole or as passata would probably be a good plan. That was my plan for last year but with the blight I hardly had enough for eating fresh

[Green Aura]

Nev posted a solar dehydrator on here in the last couple of years - or it may be on the main site. Google it and you'll probably end up back here

[bodrighy]

Thanks for the ideas. Can they be bottled in oil?I've done this with peppers before (chilis) also as they are a fruit I wonder if they could be bottled in syrup like apples and things. If we have that many it will be worth experimenting I reckon.

Pete