Cherry Tomatoes - A Late Harvest

     Cutting up and pulling out tomato plants at the end of the growing season is not a task I relish - the vines are scratchy, smelly and clingy. But as I hacked at the outer stems, removing them to a bin, I found a hidden bounty. Perhaps because we haven't been hit with a really hard frost yet and because they were protected by a tangle of vines and leaves, dozens of large clusters of Sweet Million cherry tomatoes remained to be harvested. This welcome yield enhanced my chore and I filled two large bowls with the fruit, which ranged evenly from firm and unripened to juicy and ripe. The green fellows were chopped and cooked with onions, sugar, spices and vinegar, and the result was a sweet tart relish to store in the refrigerator.

Some of the perfect red specimens were saved for salads and the rest were sliced for drying. The halves were placed on a parchment-lined pan, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with a little salt.

With the oven set at 200 degrees, the tomatoes took about eight hours to dry. After nibbling several (to make sure they were done, of course), I placed them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. In a week or two, they will be a wonderful chewy addition to an artisan bread, asiago perhaps, or a simple pasta entree.