10/17/08

The Magic: turning Grapes into grape juice!

When I was 9, I spent the summer at my grandparents house. If you ever wanted to see how a backyard could be turned into a beautiful edible garden ... you should have seen my grandpa's back yard.  The back fence was covered in the beautiful vines from concord grapes.  The trees I would climb were delicious apple, pear, and peach trees.  The garden was full rows of corn as tall as grandpa, tomatoes, strawberries, and all sorts of other farmer's market deliciousness!  Once it was picked, grandma canned it.

My two favorites were canned pears - grandma would pour cream over them, and the canned grape juice.  I loved the sound of the lip seal breaking - the pop that meant something yummy was about to be served! 

The grapes are memorable to me - I would eat them off the vine (seeds and all!), and my tongue would turn deep purple.  There was the time when the goldfish died ... and I buried him in the soil of the grape vines, with a rock-marker that had my poetic eulogy scribbled in crayon.  Then there was the grape juice --- the delicious grape juice!

So when I saw the grapes out on the vine, I knew there was something I needed to make!







This batch was made by boiling the grapes, then straining the juice, then canning it.  I was so proud of myself, that I called my mom.  My mom kept me on the phone as she went to her basement and dug through until she found grandpa's "juicer" from 1978 (that's before I was born!) - she sent it priority mail, and it's now sitting happily on my stove!  I've made a batch already, but forgot to take pictures, but don't worry - I have many more batches to make, lol!  My grandpa would be so proud!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

WOW beautiful colors! Um.. never made or had someone else I know make grape juice. Was it way hard?

Beautiful pics of it anyway =)

I am a mother! said...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...yummy. I also LOVE bottle grape juice!