It's nearly 11 o'clock at night, and I'm sitting here waiting for the food dehydrator to finish.

Note to self: start early in the morning next time.

I put these tomatoes - 5 trays of slices - in the dehydrator at 11 this morning. The instruction book said it would take 10 - 14 hours. The bottom tray seems to dry faster than the others, and I took a few brittle tomato slices from it about 2 hours ago. Just took out a few more, and consolidated the rest into 3 trays. Some of the remaining slices are almost ready, but some are still kind of mushy. They may need the full 14 hours to fully dry, but they're coming out when the rest come out, regardless. (We'll have them in an omelet in the morning if they're still wet.) The whole dehydrator full of tomato slices is going to result in about 3/4 of a quart bag-full of dried tomatoes.

I tasted one. They are yummy. Very sweet. I used several different kinds of tomatoes - Juliette tomatoes (which are bigger than a grape tomato, but smaller than a Roma), Roma tomatoes, and some of the round variety (Early Girl, most likely). I also experimented with different cutting techniques - i.e., cross-wise versus length-wise (which explains the various stages of wetness, I expect). The Juliette tomatoes, cut cross-wise into Quarter-sized circles, withered up into chewy, raisin-sized knobs. They ought to be good in salads! Cut length-wise, they sort of rolled up into a miniature scroll, about 1" long. They're among the "still mushy" ones. I cut the Romas and the round tomatoes cross-wise. They are almost crispy. They would make a great alternative to potato chips, especially if seasoned before drying. (Doesn't a tomato chip dipped in queso sound good?)

The book says you can grind the dried tomatoes into powder, and add liquid to it to reconstitute it into paste or sauce, depending on how much liquid you add.

I bet squash and zucchini would make great chips, too. We'll know by tomorrow night, assuming there are squash in the garden in the morning.