As I used a handful of our fantastic dried tomatoes in last night’s veggie sauté it brought to mind the very thought provoking book that I read a couple years ago by Barbara Kingsolver, ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life’. This is a story of how the Kingsolvers lived and ate as locally and as seasonally as possible growing much of their own food and raising their own animals. My local book club recently discussed this so I had the opportunity to re-read and enjoy it a second time.
We’ve been gardening for decades (did I really say decades?). We’ve dried and used all kinds of vegetables but I was re-inspired to dry lots more tomatoes (in a food dehydrator) and use them in many different ways after reading her book.
I’ve always made lots of sauces and salsas and either canned or frozen the end result. The over abundant small cherry and yellow pear tomatoes were usually sieved and cooked down into paste. What wasn’t used in the salsa was frozen into ice cube trays and then bagged up for use as flavorings in soups, etc.
While my tomatosicles still come in very handy we’re using more and more of the dried tomatoes on pizzas and pastas, in sandwiches and soups – you name it, and for just pennies.
If you get the chance ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’ is a very readable book and may inspire you just a little bit.
I loved Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I’ve never had enough produce to consider canning, dehydrating, etc., but I do have one cherry tomato plant, some rosemary and some basil that make me very happy! So far, the cherry tomato and the basil have been very good about self-propagation, and I now have three cherry tomato seedlings!
# Posted By Dreamybee | 1/19/09 10:14 PM