Thursday, September 25, 2008

I have a vineyard...

Um... well... actually I have a Vine in my Yard... which I guess one could stretch the concept of that into a Vineyard...

one could...

maybe...

if they felt stretchy...

vineyard 005

 

 

 

 

Anyway, so there is this grape vine growing on an arbor attached to the shed.  According to my neighbor Mrs. B they are concord grapes and are suppose to be very, very good!

We were quite excited earlier this summer as there were all these wonderful little green grape clusters starting to grow.  I had visions of grape jam and jelly.

But look what happened during the summer... Stone House 424

 

Some of the grapes in all the clusters went and shriveled up?  This was not at all fair!

I've been keeping an eye on them and it looks like what ever happened didn't happen to all the grapes.

I decided to harvest what I could the other day - not an easy task because the vines are very over grown with a lot of dead vines.  I was showered with debris as I was moving vines around and snipping clusters out.Grape Harvest 002

As I was cutting out clusters I thought - 'gee it smells just like grape jelly here'.  Well - Duh? I guess I just expected they wouldn't smell that good until they had been cooked up.  It really was yummy smelling.

 

Pretty aren't theyGrape Harvest 005?

I cooked them down and strained them through a jelly bag... I knew I wouldn't have enough to get 4 cups of juice out of these so I added some apple juice as they were cooking.

The juice is suppose to sit in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours so that you re-strain and remove any tartrate crystals that form.  I had to go and look up what a tartrate crystal was and why I needed to be concerned about it.  

 Grape Harvest 006So what do you suppose I could make out of this lovely fluid?

Grape Jelly?  Grape Candy?

Do you know what the difference is between Jelly and Candy? 

I'd say about 10 minutes...

Yep - cook it a little too long and you get candy...

Grape Candy 002

 

No this isn't slow motion photography... it was that thick.

Grape Candy 003

 

 

 

To salvage it I dissolved the 'candy' in apple juice and re-cooked it back to the jelly stage... and canned it again.

From this years harvest I have a couple small jars of Grape Jelly Grape/Apple Jelly Grapple Jelly.  But next year... I'm going to have lots of grapes and make lots of just plain ole Grape Jelly and Jam.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL

Only you, kiddo. Only you....

I'm so glad you are in my life.

xxoo
neen

Gizmo said...

Isn't that interesting....

I want to come cook at your house -- you just never know what will be put on the table. ROFLOL ;O

Anonymous said...

I love the way you make "lemonade" from your lemon experiences! Ardie

Anonymous said...

What you had there was shot berries caused by an uneven set at bloom time. Make sure you prune the vine in late winter before Spring is in the air to get a better crop.

MH said...

HMMMMMMMMMMM ! maybe some wine next year !

Bon said...

I can't believe you just didn't eat them. I love fresh concord grapes.