Roasted Tomato Sauce

The tomatoes are starting to come in fast and furious from the garden.  We are in full swing of the chaos energy of the harvest. 

For those who do not harvest their own food, late summer, as the days become shorter, humans begin to prepare for winter, much like all other animals do.  This is a non-thinking process, it is instinctual to begin to get ready for the coming dirth, or time of the year when food is scarce.  If you do not harvest your own food, you feel the need to get ready just the same.  It is quickening of the blood, as the days get shorter, the need gets stronger.  This is the time of preparing, this is the time of change, this is the time of chaos.  For most witches, they ride this wave of energy like a surfer rides a wave.  For us that harvest our own food and medicine, we turn that energy into survival needs. 

Plants are preparing for the coming dead time too.  The tomatoes, knowing that they will not live through the cold winter, are making babies, seeds buried deep in their fruit.  Many of these seeds we will save, allowing the fruits to almost rot on the vine before we wash the seeds free from the resulting pulp and dry them for next years plants.  Many of them will join the food in the cellar to carry us through the winter, getting canned and dehydrated for a taste of summer in the dreary dark days of winter.

Today I'm making roasted tomato sauce which is very easy but time consuming.  First thing I do is wash all the tomatoes, taking off the stem area and any bad spots.  These will be fed to the chickens.  The rest go into roasting pans.  On top of this I cut up onions, garlic, peppers and herbs from the garden.  I drizzle this with olive oil and put it in the oven to roast.  The temperature of the oven depends on what projects you are doing while the veggies are roasting.  If you're just puttering around the house, put them in at 400 degrees F.  If you've got a bigger project, put them in at 350.  This way they will take longer and you'll have plenty of time.  Then let them roast.  They can take as little as two hours or as much as five.



Then mash up the veggies.  If you have a wand mixer, this works really well, if not, pound them with a wooden mallet or potato masher.  Careful now, this stuff is hot.  Mash and mix, mash and mix, until all your veggies are blended into a sauce.  Then it's back into the oven to thicken.  How thick you want it is up to you.  If you like your sauce to really cling to your pasta, roast it for a couple more hours.  If you like it thinner to soak into your bread, you may be read to can it now.

Once your sauce gets to the thickness you like, it's time to flavor it.  Salt and pepper to your taste.  Then it is time to make it safe.  Modern day tomatoes, even many of the "heirloom" or open pollinating varieties don't have much for acid.  Acid is what helps keep the sauce from allowing dangerous bacteria and spores to grow in it.  If you are not going to add any additional acid to your sauce, you're going to need to pressure can it.  Ten pounds of pressure for 20 minutes should do it, but consult the manual for your pressure canner.

For me I find it easier to just add an acid. One tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice (they both have about the same amount of acid) per quart of sauce and a couple extra to grow on in what I do.  Yes, I know it's not scientific but that's how I've done it.  If you are concerned called you county extension office to see what they recommend.  Then you can can it in a water bath canner like the one below.

Here seven pint jars are being boiled for about 20 minutes.  Of course you will do it with the cover on, I was just showing the cans as the water heated up.

Each of the roasting pans makes just a bit over 2 gallons of sauce and I made 6 roasting pans of sauce today.  Here are the jars from the first pan, just waiting to be labeled and stored on the cellar shelves for the cold winter days when the sour dough bread is baking in the oven next to the roasting squash.  A pot of homemade noodles are boiling quickly on the stove, waiting for their drenching of this taste of summer. 

There is a power in being in control of your own food supply.  No worries if the stores don't carry what you want or if a blizzard keeps you from getting out.  You are in charge of what you put into your sacred body.  All you need to find that power is to tap into a bit of that chaos energy that is swirling around you right now.  Put it into you cans and in the dark times if mid-winter, when sadness can creep us on us all, you can open that can and feel a small part of the energy that will once again swirl around us at the harvest times.