Taking the wilted sprigs out of the bag, I cut the ends off with a sharp knife. Don’t use scissors for this. They will crush the stems. Then I stuck the whole thing in a jar of purified water.

It looked pretty sad and I was wondering if I should write it off as a loss and discard it. I decided to give it a chance, though. I was glad I did because here’s what it looked like a few hours later:

Now, I’m not saying that the nutritional value was as much as when it was freshly picked but it made it salvageable. This will also work with salad greens and tougher greens like collards and kale. If the water is hot (not so hot you can’t put your hand in it) it works even more quickly.

While fresh produce should be used as soon as possible for maximum value, it isn’t always possible. Keep this in mind for your next emergency resuscitation.

First, I washed them well with Veggie Wash.

Then I sliced them onto the dehydrator trays.

Next I seasoned them. I used Himalayan sea salt and Italian seasoning on some as well a pizza seasoning on the rest. I used a light hand for this because I remembered that flavors intensify when they are dehydrated.

Try as I might, the seasoning wasn’t completely even but that was okay. I wasn’t in it to win a contest.

The dehydrator was set at 115 degrees or thereabout (I can’t see the dial because it’s sitting where the microwave used to live and it’s in sort of a “cave”).

I monitored the progress and, after 24 hours, they were still too moist to take out. I waited and extra 12 (your time may vary according to the humidity) and they were perfect.

Peeling them off the ParaFlexx sheets, I stored them in a quart size freezer bag. Of course, I had to have some samples, too.

The end product is chewy, not crisp. There’s still a bit of moisture left no matter what (unless you dry them at a high temperature) so I would advise storing them in the freezer.

Now for something I will do differently next time. I left the peeling on. It’s rather tough when it’s dry. I’d scald the tomatoes in boiling water for 10 or so seconds (I’ve heard keeping them in there for anywhere from 30 seconds to a full minute but that makes for a mushy tomato) and slip the peeling off. Then slice and prepare as above.

Happy harvesting!

I filled the sink with water and washed the dirt off the fruit (yes, tomatoes are a fruit). Then I sliced the larger ones in four lengthwise slices and the smaller ones in three and put them on dehydrator trays I’d wiped down with a microscopically thin layer of olive oil. That was to keep them from sticking when they were ready to come out of their warm home.

Some 24 hours later (more or less) I checked them and rotated the trays. Here’s what they looked like at that stage:

I don’t have a thermostat on my dehydrator so I can’t accurately set it for a constant temperature. It’s very basic but it works. I got it years ago from VitaMix. It’s no longer manufactured.

Back to the tomatoes. The next evening, I checked them again and they were ready to be packaged.

A little snack-size plastic bag held one tray full of dehydrated tomato slices. I had 13 trays filled so I had 13 snack bags when I finished.

Since the little bags aren’t made for keeping foods longterm, I put all of them into a freezer bag labeled with the contents and the year.

My dehydrator doesn’t dehydrate foods evenly so I put it in the freezer to await the future. The slices that had solid skin on one side were still a little soft and I don’t want mold in my ‘maters. BTW, as I unloaded the trays, I snacked on some of the slices and they were GOOD.

Making your own faux sun dried tomatoes is very easy. It does take time but anything worth doing does. And think how good they’ll be in a marinara sauce this winter!

There aren’t very many avenues of preservation open to the raw foodist. Freezing and dehydrating are two and neither would be considered optimal. However, you do what you have to do to put food on the table. A third is fermenting but that’s an altogether different ball of wax. I’ve chronicled my making of kim chee elsewhere on my blog but that’s as far as I’ve gone with fermenting. I got an email from merm not too long ago that he had made pickles in their crock but I haven’t ventured there yet.

A few years ago, one of the nursing staff and I were discussing basil and I said I wished I could do something with it besides drying it. Dried basil doesn’t have the same bright flavor that fresh does. She said, “Freeze it!” and she told me how to do it. It’s pretty basic. And it’s easy. Two of my favorite things.

Since basil is an ingredient rather than something you would make a meal on, it doesn’t have to take up that much room in the freezer.

First, I harvested a good hand full of basil from the garden.

I don’t wash it. You can if you want. It’s my preference not to. It isn’t dirty—at least mine isn’t. Maybe the rain has splashed mud onto yours. Anyway, I pinch any buds out of the top (they can be bitter) and fold the leaves up into a bunch. These are some scissors I inherited from my mother. I washed them well and use them in the kitchen now. I snip away at the leaves.

Here’s a goodly amount shredded and ready for the next step. The edges may get a little brown but we are going for flavor here, not looks.

I pack the ice tray as tightly as I can with the shredded basil.

It doesn’t matter if some of the sections are fuller than others. This isn’t rocket science. When I get them full, I pour in purified water to the top of the tray. I don’t stop at the top of the sections. I go as close as I can to the top of the tray, itself.

Then it goes into the freezer until it’s frozen solid.

Once frozen, it can be tricky to get out of the tray. I tried twisting the tray but it was stuck, for sure. When I was a child, my mother had ice trays with levers that would move the sections and pop the ice cubes out but I haven’t seen any of those for years. With this plastic one, I turn it over and run water (cold is fine) on the bottom. Then I twist it over a bowl and pop the cubes out.

At this point, they are really rather pretty. Kind of like green jewels. Break them apart and put them in a labeled freezer bag and (TADA!!) put them back in the freezer. I can keep adding to the bag until it’s full and then start another one.

To use, I put one cube in one recipe of Matt’s Dip. I like it very basil-y. Try varying the amount of basil in the sections if less is wanted. But why would you want less?

My goal is not to buy ANY basil and have enough to last me until next year’s crop is ready. I should be able to make it, no problem.