When we moved into this new house I was so excited for all of the canning possibilities it had. There were so many fruit trees, they all needed work or just burning done. haha. One of those things was the concord grapes on the fence. We have one fence that has grapes and they are wonderful not only for the privacy they give us. They give tasty grapes. Last year I only got maybe 6-8 quarts of juice. So this year I wasn't expecting too much more than that. I got 32 this year it was amazing. I did use the other side as well because no one had bought the house yet. We are getting new great neighbors in December. yay.
My little buddy wanted to help me like always. He loved dumping my full buckets out. He really tries to help me and I love that he wants to help, its cute.
I scored a juicer while they went on sale this canning season and I love it. I used it for apricots too.
Last year I found an earwig at the bottom of one of my jars so this year I took the extra step and strained it all. We were safe this year. Its really not hard work to juice it just takes all day.
It tasted so good. My mom told me that the longer they stay on the vine the sweeter they get so I tried to let them go as long as I could but I finally just did it. I hear that if you wait till after the first freeze that is a good time to do it. I think we were pretty close maybe just a week or two early.
I would dump out the already juiced grapes and put them in a bowl while the next batch was going and it would put out more juice so I would add that to my jars. It was great. Waste not, want not.
Normally you would add the juice and then one jar of water then add sugar to taste good. My sister said she just drank it in the concentrated form and it was sweet enough to not add sugar. I was excited about that because I am really trying to cut sugar out little by little.
I am so grateful that my mom taught me so much about canning and that she lets me call her all the time with my questions. I have a lot to still learn. I love looking at this wall in my storage room. One reason is that I'm proud I was able to do that and make it all. The second reason is that we are prepared if anything happens whether is a disaster or a loss of a job. We are prepared and that gives me peace. I love it.
No comments:
Post a Comment