Making Tomato Candy

The tomato crop is about done for the summer.  The heat and the stinkbugs have the tomato plants throwing in the towel.  We had been picking them green, bringing them inside, and putting them in a brown paper bag for ripening.  You can't really vine ripen tomatoes around here once it warms up and the bug pressure gets bad.  Oh, we could solve the problem, I think, if we spray pesticides on the tomatoes, but I don't want to eat pesticides.  Next year, I will do my homework and see if there are any natural products (Neem Oil?) that work on stink bugs.

We still made a nice tomato crop this year and eat them most every day.  Today, we'll show you how we make a great tasting snack that we call "Tomato Candy."  It's very easy and very tasty.  We cut up the homegrown tomatoes into wedges and put them on the trays of the food dehydrator.

We sprinkle them with kosher salt and cracked black pepper.  Then we go to the herb patch and get some fresh rosemary and put the rosemary on top of the tomatoes.

After a few hours, the tomato candy is done.  You can tell that the tomatoes have been dehydrated.  All the water has been removed, leaving the tomatoes concentrated with flavor!

While they're not exactly sun-dried tomatoes, its the same concept.

We store the tomato candy in mason jars and snack on them until they're gone - which doesn't take long!