The Price of Insanity

I've always wanted to be someone who likes to garden.  This spring, our backyard was plantable for the first time in 5 years.  We've been under construction or I've been pregnant the other years.  Pregnancy wouldn't normally be a reason to avoid gardening, except for the awkwardness of it, but  with each pregnancy, I had a condition called pica.  Pica is a nutritional deficiency that causes strong compulsions.  In my case, it was an irresistible compulsion to eat dirt.  I was obsessed with consuming soil.  I'd dream about it, imagine how it would taste, visualize scooping up big handfuls of rich loam and wolfing them down.  I was scared to go into my yard for fear I wouldn't be able to control myself.

The bottom line is that this March, I went wild.  I hadn't gardened in so long that I went wild.  I planted hundred of plants:  hibiscus, rosemary, roses, lemons, limes, oranges, mint, gardenias, hydrangeas, basil, cilantro, and tomatoes.  And boy did I plant tomatoes.  I don't know what I was thinking when I planted 23 tomato plants.  It was March, and the tomatoes in the store were mealy and flavorless, so maybe that's my excuse.  But I planted cherry, grape, currant, roma, and heirloom reds and yellows.  I guess I was thinking that half of them would die, or they'd yield 1 or 2 fruits each, like corn.  Little did I know that all 23 plants would thrive in the warm California summer.

It turns out that 23 tomato plants yield 75-100 pounds of tomatoes a week.  That's way more than a family of 4 can eat.  I've given tomatoes to everyone I know, including total strangers.  But they pile up on my counters much faster than I can give them away.  The town I live in won't allow me to sell at the farmer's market, and my boys are strongly opposed to opening a front-yard tomato stand.  So, the only option left to me is to can the tomatoes.

For the most part, I don't like canned food.  It often tastes weirdly metallic and artificial to me, and I don't know what's really in most of it.  Home canning has some appeal because I can control the ingredients, but I know there's a health risk associated with it.  However, my uncle Ken makes his own fantastic strawberry jam, so it can't possibly be THAT hard.  Although it still seems very old-timey.  Next thing you know, I'll be salting beef and order block ice.

Last week was my first adventure in canning.  I learned that it takes about 8 hours to turn 50 pounds of tomatoes into 7 pints of really good sauce.  The good news is I was able to make coffee for 2 days without having to move bowls of tomatoes!  But then Rudy and the boys picked again, and I had another couple of hundred tomatoes on my counter.  So today I'm trying it again, but in a more streamlined method, I hope.

This isn't a recipe so much as an approach.  I use whatever I have on hand.  Last week, I had onions, basil, oregano and bay leaves, but I was out of garlic.  This week, I'm out of onion and bay leaf, so it's a tomato-garlic-basil sauce.

Tomato-Garlic-Basil Sauce

Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Fresh Garlic

Fresh Basil

Fresh Oregano

Salt

Pepper

1. Wash tomatoes well.  Cut off the stem end, then quarter or halve (depending on size).  Add to a large pot.  Simmer 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are soft and skins are falling off.  (In this case, I had about 50 pounds of various tomatoes.  It took 2 pots to cook them).
   
2. Puree tomatoes in a blender, then push through a sieve to remove skins and seeds.  When pureeing, work very carefully because sauce is boiling hot.  I only fill the blender halfway,  cover the lid with a towel, then start on the lowest setting and work my way up to the highest setting.  Mash remaining flesh on sieve with the back of a spoon to push as much flesh and flavor through.  Scrape the outside of the sieve with a different spoon to get any stuck flesh.  Discard skins and seeds.  (It took me 12 blenders-full and 12 strainings to get through the tomatoes).
   

3. Finely mince garlic, as much as you like.  (I used 9 large cloves for this batch.)  Add to a large pot with enough olive oil to coat the bottom.  Turn on the heat and saute until garlic is translucent.  (By adding the garlic to cold oil then heating it, you reduce the chance of burning the garlic).  Add the tomato sauce.  Bring to a simmer.
   
4. Finely mince some oregano (I used about 3 Tablespoons) and half the basil (I used about 2 ounces total).  Stir into the sauce.  Simmer until the sauce is reduced by half (This can take hours). Stir occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom of the pan. Mince the rest of the basil, then add to the sauce.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Let simmer 5 minutes more.  Either enjoy now, or continue with the canning process.

I will post pictures and write about the canning process tomorrow.  Also tomorrow, the plan for the week, and a second attempt at Alice Water's Foccacia!