We are blessed to live on a breathtakingly beautiful earth. Every which way you turn, in any which direction you look, the beauty of earth is stunning. And this earth is so generous, so giving that anywhere you look you find something delicious to savour, to nourish you with so much unconditional love. No matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter what you think, the giving is the same for all to take. This earth is great!
We on the other hand, can sometimes act like spoilt little brats! Like a fussy child, tossing and breaking and taking for granted! Feeling entitled, as though we own earth, treating her as a slave, demanding she produces more, so we can waste more! Demanding that she does not rest, depleting and spraying our poisons on her and then wondering when it aches or just does not yield the way it once did! But she gives and continues to give and we take and continue to deplete and we complain and she watches… patiently, like a mother, waiting for her child to come of age and mature!
Thankfully more and more of us are seeing this and becoming more aware of our handmade problems. More and more of us are learning to appreciate, to be graceful, to give thanks and hold on and preserve the good things we are given. And refusing to take anything for granted.
This recipe is a showcase of appreciation. It is simple, celebrating that which earth has given us all these years, decades, centuries… Celebrating the holding on to (preservation) of this blessing in an expression of appreciation and gratitude. Celebrating life, the cycles and all they hold of wisdom from those before us and hopefully that which we will get to pass to those after us.
I am carrying out this recipe using an oven as opposed to sun drying, just in case you do not have access to an outdoors where you can lay your trays of tomatoes to dry in the sun.