Use caution when canning dried tomatoes in olive oil. Grape based wines as well as juice are great with tomatoes. They seem to mellow out some of the sharp favor. Here, I grew some nice big oxheart tomatoes and I must say that they were very meaty and had very little liquid or seeds. I also tried a hollow stuffing tomato, but they tend to spoil very quickly and even on the plant, as I would see bad spots forming almost over night. If I grow more tomatoes, I do plan to start some of the oxhearts again as I like to make a nice thick saice that isn't going to need a lot of coking down just to get rid of the excess liquid. Of course there are many plum varieties that are also great for drying. Ever try the commericaly available Wheat Thin crackers? They have a sun dried tomato and basil flavored cracker that is really tasty.

Mary,

Wow, that sounds great! I dry a lot of cherry tomatoes to use isn pasta, salad, stew, etc. What a great tip.

I just put them in the oven on low, which is a bit more of an inexact science than using a dehydrator, but works for me. (I store them in baggies in the freezer.)

Ken,

Mary has posted about the tomatoes she puts in oil before --- she keeps them refrigerated.

Z

I get it. Yes, refrigeration would be necessary for the oil and dried tomatoes.

I recently purchased of a cheap $50 stainless steel toaster oven that gives me the option of using it as a dehydrator too. It has a fan inside and can either toast, broil, do convection baking, or plain baking. It was offered at either BJ's or Costco recently, and is big/deep enough to fit a 9" pie in it with no trouble. Its made by Oster and has a big glass door on the front with all digial controls. Much bigger than my 30+ year old GE toaster oven that can barely fit two slices of bread side by side.
I think a regular oven is a bit too much for drying things, as it wasn't intended for that purpose originally. Some oven can have premature failure if the door is open all the time with the heat running. My round plastic Ronco dehydrator unit works very well and has been giving me consistent results in just a couple of days in the dehydrator, even for very watery peppers.

Ken is right. I DO refrigerate always those that are in oil. I also use "acidification" (go here to see how. Karen found the link) http://cefresno.ucdavis.edu/files/11202.pdf
If you give them as gifts as I do you MUST remind receivers to refrigerate (I have labels for tops of jars.)
My family specially likes the oil that tomatoes were in drizzled over Italian toasted bread.

Karen, "Kashie" (?) Foods (The Cereal People) are making a GREAT tomato-herb cracker also. I make sun-dried tomato pate and/or olive tampanade to serve with them. The pate & Tamponade are a HUGE hit with guests who have usually never heard of or eaten either of them. If anyone wants recipes for either or both just let me know. I also have a FABULOUS!@!! Roasted Pepper & Tomato soup recipe that freezes great and even improves with age. I use up a lot of end-of-season tomatoes and peppers and make a triple batch just to freeze. My hubby loves it in the winter and my friends and family drive me crazy for it. In case anyone is wondering, I worked my way through college cooking for an upscale Italian Restaurant that did a lot of catering so I really love to cook (A lot more fun when it's not a job...HAH!) Mary

Hi Mary,

Your recipes sound delicious!I would love to try all three. Could you please post or e-mail the recipes.
Thanks!
Beth

brokenbar...I know this thread is old but I would love to have your roasted pepper and tomato soup recipe...would you share it....

Never mind ...I found it..thanks for sharing..