Skip to main content

Grape Juice!

Nothing smells more uniquely like fall than the scent of hot grapes juicing.  My in-laws have quite the collection of grape vines and, much to hubby's delight, they offered us first pickings and the use of their steam juicer to juice them!  The process is quite simple, just time-consuming.

1. Pick grapes and rinse them


2. Follow your steam juicer's instructions.  This steam juicer has a water reservoir at the bottom, topped by a collection reservoir with a basket inside.  You fill the basket with grapes, the water reservoir with water, put it all together and put the lid on and heat over medium to medium-high heat. The tubing comes out the front, and make sure it is sitting in a bottle and that you have lots of bottles on hand, because when the juice starts to come out it really flows!  The juice will come in spurts for a while, and I got about 6 quarts per basket full.


3. While juice is still hot, put on lids and rings and they will self-seal.  If they don't seal, water bath for 10 min...or just drink it!


See? Easy-peasy...just a lot of waiting.  Oh, and you have to check the water reservoir a LOT, because if it all boils out the canner can warp.  Don't have a juicer?  Here is another method for making grape juice cocktail that doesn't require one:

Grape "Juice" Without a Juicer

I must say, this years grapes are super sweet, and the juice doesn't need any extra sweetener at all, which makes me super happy, because who wants to drink juice when you have to add more stuff to it to make it taste like juice?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Homeschooling on a Budget

We finally took the plunge. For the last year and a half we have been homeschooling.  We made the decision for a combination of academic and social reasons, and I'm telling you it was so worth it to see a once struggling student be successful and have confidence again. Unfortunately, the investment of time into my children has resulted in a dearth of postings, and will likely continue to do so. But, lucky for you, I have decided to post a few of the awesome free resources we have found that have been helping us to homeschool on a budget.  They include both secular and Christian resources, so hopefully you can find something that will suit your needs. 1.   The Good and The Beautiful  language arts curriculum.  Jenny Phillips has created an amazing Christian curriculum resource available for FREE for families.  Levels 1-5 of The Good and The Beautiful's language arts curricula are free in their .pdf formats.  The links to the free digital versions are buried below the "w
Post a Comment
Read more

Tip For Peeling Eggs

Image by khunaspix via freedigitalphotos.net  The best part of having your own chickens is fresh eggs.  Since spring feels like it has arrived in our neck of the woods, our chickens have ramped up their egg production significantly in the last couple of weeks.  This occurred right after I bought a dozen and a half eggs from Costco since I wasn't expecting to have so many fresh ones on hand for a few weeks yet.  Oops.  So here I was with a huge amount of eggs, trying to figure out what to do with them.  Then I remembered a family pot luck we had coming up and decided it would be the perfect opportunity to use up a dozen or more eggs in hard-boiled form on a big batch of potato salad.  Since I was making hard boiled eggs, I though I'd share my little trick for peeling them. I never realized that people have a hard time peeling hard boiled eggs until I got married and my husband was complaining one day about how he couldn't get the eggs peeled very easily.  Then I noti
Post a Comment
Read more

Christmas Planning Part II: Our Christmas Gift Philosophy

It is very easy around the Holidays to get caught up in the "magic" of Christmas. And what could be more magical than a giant pile of presents under the tree, right? While this may paint a lovely picture, it can't always be the reality financially. And even if you can swing it for one year, it might set up an expectation or precedent for years to come. Years that might not be as abundant. In our family, we have decided to shift the focus as much as we can from getting and gifts, to giving, making memories, and traditions (more on that to come).  We still give gifts, but we have pared it down quite a bit to make it more manageable. We have settled on giving our kids 4 presents each year, based around the following rhyme shared with me by a friend: "Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read." I can already hear your brains ticking, "Do you seriously only give your kids ONE TOY at Christmas?" Well, no. These are the
Post a Comment
Read more