Grape Jam...

It took most of the day on Sunday, but I ended up with these beautiful jars of homemade Concord grape jam by dinnertime. Plus, there is still about six pounds of grapes to make juice.

The process for grape jam is labor intense. First you have to squeeze the pulp out of the skins (2 at a time for me), reserving the skins in another bowl. Eight pounds of grapes is a lot of squeezing! Once that's done, the grape pulp is heated until it's tender. Then all of that is put through a chinois to remove the seeds and solids.

While that cooking is going on, the skins are run through a food processor to chop them up. Then they're placed into another pot with about a 1/4 cup of water an cooked down for twenty minutes. After the skins are cooked down, they're added to the pulp, along with sugar, and cooked down until the mixture reaches 220º F. By the time that process is complete, it will be necessary to mop the floor, clean the stovetop, and any adjacent countertops, because the process of boiling down the jam results in what resembles Mt. Vesuvius erupting.

Handsome was my taste-tester while the cooking was going on, and when I'd finished putting all the jam into jars, he made toast to support the last of the jam left in the cooking pot. He immediately declared the jam a winning recipe!

By bedtime, all the jars had sealed and cooled. I'd labeled them, and carefully placed them into the "jelly/jam section" of the pantry...with quite the feeling of accomplishment. I'll process the rest of the grapes in the next day or two.

This week is going to be busy. Handsome has appointments (remember, I'm the chauffeur); I work on Tuesday and Friday evening; this week is our monthly classmate dinner (and one of the guys would like two trays of cinnamon rolls again. Isn't that cute?); I need to make bread; and Saturday is Craft Day in Portage. I know I'll get good sleep when I can.

So, tell me. How is your week looking?

Jammed Up Again...

Brynwood Needleworks - Farmhouse Grape Jam

 

I finally got grape jam made for the pantry yesterday. The longest part of the process is separating the grape pulp from the skins. Once that's done, the rest goes fairly easy, but man! This batch was made from eight pounds of grapes...skinned one or two grapes at a time. I listen to the radio while I work. Eight pounds of grapes turned into nearly eight pints of jam. I have four pounds left to process, which I'll do today.

 

Younger son has built all the rails for the porch, so this weekend, I'll be doing the finishing painting on all of the parts. Today, he's installing a new storm door on the "friends and family" entrance for us.

 

I'm going to make the jam, clean up the kitchen afterward, and then I'm planning to sit and stitch the rest of the day. If I'm painting on the weekend, and making new commissions next week, today, I'll stitch.There! That's settled. wink

 

Happy First Fall Weekend!! 

Resilience...

"Resilience" by Autumn Skye ©2017

I saw this image on Facebook a week ago and, based on the watermark, managed to find the artist's website. Autumn Skye creates beautiful images, and this one is my favorite. It really speaks to me. Were it not for bees, my garden efforts (and much more) would be for naught.

Whenever I visit my kitchen garden, it is abuzz with honey bees, bumble bees and other pollinators. They allow me to work among them, too. If I don't bother them, they don't bother me...and I always leave blossoms for them to feast on, too. I know they need the nectar for the hives up the hill, or to nourish themselves for the winter ahead. I'm more than happy to share.

"Jasmine Bees" - ©2018 DLiljegren-Brynwood Needleworks

 

I had a lovely day yesterday with Daughter-in-Law #2. We went shopping in Cedarburg (WI), shared a delightful lunch at an old stone farmhouse restaurant called "The Farmstead", and even made it to a local farm market (Witte's) so I could bring home fresh produce for dinner.

 

Before I turned for home, I stopped at the home of one of her and our son's friends. They have concord grapes growing on an arbor in their back yard, which they offered to me for the picking. I'll be sharing grape jam with them when I make it today.

 

When I arrived at their house, I was greeted by a huge jasmine bush (comparable in size to those we had in Florida), and the fragrance was intoxicating. I knew I'd be taking a picture to show you. When I got closer, I saw that it, too, was humming with bees. It was a veritable feast for them, and they weren't wasting the opportunity! (I managed to capture two of them in this shot.)

 

After taking a few pictures, I walked to the back of their yard, where they told me I'd find all the grapes I cared to pick. I was also warned about the mosquitoes, which are legion in Wisconsin this year. No kidding, I had to battle them to harvest about three gallons of grapes! I pulled my jacket up over my head and closed it across my face to keep them from swarming my ears and face. Even so, I left looking like I'd played goalie in a dart game! My face was pocked with "sting and go" mosquito marks. Thankfully, they weren't full-blown bites, and by the time I got home, the redness had disappeared.

Handsome and I will be making Grape Jam and the last batch of Zucchini & Pepper Relish for this year, plus canning pears over the weekend. All that will be left is applesauce. First things first. I can almost smell the grape goodness rising in the kitchen.

Farmhouse Grape Jam...

Grapes. Cleaned And Awaiting Processing

The rain held off this morning, so Handsome and I drove over to a local farm that was offering Concord grapes. Together we picked twenty pounds of the ripe fruit, cleaning out the rest of their stock in this variety.

Grapes - Fresh Off The Vines

We had two garbage bag-lined, large, shopping bags with us, and Handsome and I filled them up as we talked about grapes...and dodged silly kittens playing in the arbor. They were really sweet (grapes and kittens,)

Ready For Processing

My recipe calls for four pounds of grapes (prior to cleaning). We have twenty pounds, so I just started cleaning until the bowl was full. I set the scale to compensate for the weight of the bowl I was using (a big Tupperware one - not the big pottery one!) and ended up with enough for a double batch.

Our "Now Vintage" Scale

That means I still have about twelve pounds of grapes to clean and process. I'm going to definitely take a day off to sew before I tackle those. Oh, and we stopped at the orchard and picked up a bushel (53 pounds) of McIntosh apples for more applesauce, too. I'll do those this weekend.

Finished The First Batch Of Jam

 

Eight pounds of Concord grapes equals three pints and eight half pints of yummy jam. Won't that be tasty this winter? I think I may plant a few vines next spring so we can grow our own right here on the farm. Can you believe I'm already planning what's going to go into our garden next year!

Today will be a sewing day, and there will be more canning on Friday and Saturday. I'm having labels made for our canned goods, too! I'll share those as soon as they arrive. I have lots to do before then.

See you tomorrow!