What I’m about to say is probably considered blasphemy but I’ve never understood the fuss over home grown tomatoes. I like tomato sauce on everything but I’m not a fan of just eating a tomato. Because of that I’ve never grown tomatoes in my garden.
This year I just couldn’t find a variety of plants in the local stores. All they had was tomatoes and peppers. I decided to plant one grape tomato plant. I didn’t really care what happened to it. I was just looking to fill some space.
That plant has exploded. In fact while I was out of town it decided to go on a land grab and took over the spot occupied by my zucchini. I’m now zucchini-less but have grape tomatoes in abundance.
These tomatoes are really good. I’m shocked. I’m eating them like candy. There are so many that I’m oven drying them. I love dried tomatoes in sauces and it is an easy way to preserve the (overwhelming) bounty.
Here is part of today’s haul of tomatoes.
About half of those are in the oven now. I cut them in half and then arrange them on a rack over a foil lined cookie sheet. I cook them at 250 degrees until they are dried. It takes several hours. The next batch I make I’m going to flavor with garlic and whatever other dried herbs I have. The rest of them are going to get cut in half and put on a pizza for dinner tonight.
In Australia we call them cherry tomatoes. I remember tending for a neighbours once, with permission to eat as many as I liked. I stripped the plants bare.