I'm doing grape, how about you?

So- not nearly as many pictures were taken this weekend as I though would be.  But, that's ok. We'll live. 

I went over to my Grandma's house this weekend to put up some grape juice.  Turns out I am really bad at estimating weight.  I told Grandpa I had 15 pounds of grapes.  I actually had more like, 30.  Oops.  We ran out of lids after 24 jars of juice.  We decided to try freezing the leftover grapes.  We'll try cooking them down for jelly later on, after the wedding. 

So - on to the exciting stuff. 

Canning isn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.  You hear all kinds of terrible stories about how intimidating it is.  So and so's great grandmother burned the house down while canning, or my husband's great aunt lost an eye when a jar exploded.  It sounds like canning is a full contact sport, when in reality, it's a lot of sitting around and waiting.  And moving slowly so you don't burn yourself or spill boiling water on the dog. 

For our juice recipe, the most difficult part is keeping the water boiling, and cleaning the grapes.  I did most of the grape cleaning - I stood over a sink and picked each grape from the stem and dropped it into the sink filled with cool water, swished them around and dumped them into a bowl.  The end. Just kidding.

We sterilized the jars in the diswasher, so that was easy.  Then we added grapes, sugar and boiling water to each jar.  We placed the lids on each jar and screwed on the ring. Then we put 8 jars into Great Grandma's canner, made sure they were covered in water, and processed them. 

When the timer went off, we carefully took each jar out and set them on the counter on a clean and dry towel, making sure they weren't touching each other.  We covered them with a dishtowel and let them cool.  As they were cooling, you would hear the occasional 'Pop!'  This was the lid sealing itself on the jar. 

I left them at Grandma's to cool, so I don't have any pictures of the finished product, yet.  I'll pick them up later this week and I can't wait to try it!  Our juice is very red, where Grandma's juice used to be kind of pinkish, mostly due to the grapes.

As I said, we're freezing the leftover grapes to make into jelly.  For jelly, you cook down the grapes, and strain it through cheescloth.  Then you add sugar, and gelatin to the juice you strain out.  I'll let you know how that goes, too.

So that's what my weekend was all about.  How about yours?  I think I've been bitten by the canning bug, now that I know it's not nearly as hard as I thought it was.  I'm officially adding a canner to my Christmas List.

The Grapes of Wrath

It's been a crazy week - so no posts.  Sorry about that.  My little sister is getting married (!) in two weeks, so we've been consumed with wedding crafts.  50 pew bows have been made, 4 flower stands were decorated, and her card box was constructed, painted and decorated.  Mike has worked on her programs and table numbers, and also her placecards.  On top of all that, we've been trying to keep up with all our social obligations.  We're going to Festa Italiana on Harriet Island tonight, and we're going to the Minnesota Rennaisance Festival tomorrow. 

Frost is imminent here in Minnesota, so we needed to pick grapes.  Our good friends bought a house this summer and they found out they have lots of grapevine on their fence.  The grapes were really good, and they didn't want them this year, so I said I would take them and can some grape juice with my grandma.  We pulled the grapes last night since it is supposed to frost this weekend.



We gathered them all in bags and brought them home.  I had to lay them out in a single layer, using every. single. last. pan or tray I have.  I do this so they don't get squished and lose all their juice before I am ready to can. They are very heavy, and just the weight of the grapes will smash the ones on the bottom if you're not careful.

Holy grapes, Batman!

Then I stacked them in my fridge to wait until canning day on Sunday!  Hopefully, I will remember to take lots of pictures on Sunday so I can document my first attempt at canning!