I see readinglady "came to the rescue-again" as she remembered where to buy those little tea bag stuffers. She is an amazing lady - my hat is off to her for all of her many contributions to this fine forum. I also have some older coffee filters - left from an upgraded coffee maker that might work just fine. Will try that too. Of OT interest (again) the silica sand mentioned - in Ken's post - is harvested not far from here - an old bed of hardened skeletons from sea creatures millions of years old, which is located about 4 miles from the ocean. They also call it diatomaceous earth - and gardeners use it to thwart slugs and snails in the garden. The sand has hard sharp edges that perforate the snail/slugs body. Home Depot also sells it as a blasting sand, used in construction, because of it's cutting properties (removing old paint, etc). Just my 2 c's. (sorry). But I do want to use dried tomatoes for paste anyway - this summer. That's a cool idea and in a small way, helps to eliminate the problem of whether to use bottled lemon juice in my tomatoes - saves on canning jars, freezer/shelf space, etc. Bejay

> I'm not so worried about the safety factor. The problem is that the tomatoes are dried to a crunch and I've since found out that because they are that dry, they won't absorb the oil. What do you mean you found out? You heard it somewhere, or you tried them? If you tried them, how long had they been in the oil? I'm asking because it doesn't make sense to me -- I would think that, if anything, more dry would mean more absorption. But I bet it takes a few months, either way. >I should have only dried them to the leathery stage. I'm wondering now, since I saw wine used in one recipe, if I could strain off the oil, then mix them with the wine to slightly rehydrate them, then repack them in the jar with the oil? If it were me, I would fish out, like, 3 slices and try the wine thing on them, see if it's worth the nbother :). They might absorb the wine, or their oil coating might prevent that. But the result can't be anything but delicious either way, right?

"PC, Zapotec Pleated is often hollow as grown by many and it wouldn't be on my list to use as a paste variety." Thanks for weighing in on that. It is actually the hollowness that is most interesting to me. I have this irrational thought that such hollowness in tomatoes might possibly result in very flavorful flesh ("meat"), which is why I would like to try it for dehydration, which is really what I'm after, which I would use not so much for snacking but more to create flavor stock for cooking, like with different hot peppers in dishes like a favorite of mine, Asado de Puerco, or like dehydrated shrimp in Siete Mares. I'm not quite sure if this would be considered a paste use or not to be honest, but it is what I have in mind. It is basically a rehydration of the desiccated flavor where they are used as a spice with a very heavy hand. About my comment on paste, sadly I don't have the luxury to prepare much paste ... Don't have tomatoes to spare in my limited growing space (and I am trying to go more vertical to change this but that it is a PITB in containers here). Your comment on not being a paste tomato is well taken for the traditional simmering to make Mama Leone's sort of delicious cuisine ;-) PC

This was my first year growing tomatoes after a few years of not having a garden. I used some seed that were at least 5 years old leftover from my last garden and wasn't sure if they'd make it. They did, but I got irregular numbers of plants from them, making yields a little hard to determine (since I'm too lazy to weigh anything). Therefore, my totally unscientific impressions... Best: Mortgage Lifter, Red Brandywine, Black Cherrry - all good producers and tasted good. Tolerated heat well too. Saved seed and WILL grow again. Meh: Pink Ponderosa and Hawkins Plum - Only had 2 and 4 plants of these, respectively, but they still seemed to have poor yields, and Hawkins had terrible BER. Flavor of both were fine. Saved seed, but only MIGHT grow again. Bad: Yellow Pear - Huge production, but flavor left much to be desired. Much like a store bought tomato. Didn't save seed; won't grow again. As you can see, I think flavor and yield are both important. Don't see a lot of use in growing a delicious tomato if you don't get any fruit, but high yields aren't that great when the tomatoes taste lousy. I don't think asking for both good flavor and good yields is too much to ask. :-)