Since we have a small garden this year, we have been overrun with cucumbers, tomatoes, dill, oregano and basil. I've done some canning in the past and have all the gear so I've had a few canning parties this summer (We party like rockstars around here!)
I was able to use everything we grew because I made pickles with the cucumbers and dill and I made stewed tomatoes with the tomatoes, basil
and oregano. Yum!
Our friends Andy and Felicia have a huge garden and they let me come over and pick fresh green beans in July. I canned half of those and froze half.
This year I got to make something new, though, and it was a pretty interesting process. My awesome in-laws grow grapes over their arbor and Linda gave me a huge ziplock bag full of grapes. They have been overwhelmed with grapes this year, but we don't really eat them because they have seeds (Hello...Jackson only has 9 teeth, we don't want to break any of them!). So since we eat a lot of pb&j sandwiches around here and the grocery store jelly is full of high fructose corn syrup (GASP!), I decided to try making grape jelly.
You have to start out roughly chopping the grapes in a food processor to get the juices flowing. Then you move them to a pot on the stove and simmer them to break them down a a little. After this, you have to strain them A LOT through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth to seperate all the gunk from the juice. I was surprised at how much was left behind after this process.
Next, you have to put the juice back on the stove and boil it with some pectin and SEVEN, yes SEVEN, cups of sugar!!! Check it out:
After all of this, it's time to can the jelly. You just ladle it into hot, sterilized jars and process it in a boiling water canner for about 10 minutes. I ended up with about 5 cups of juice-that's the perfect amount for one box of pectin and I ended up with 2 pints and 5 half-pints of jelly with a little left over for tasting.
Jackson definitely approves and I'm happy because now I can feed him jelly that is free of preservatives, additives and corn syrup. Yay!
7 comments:
Wow, I have always wondered how grape jelly is made! We usually have a jar or two of homemade grape jelly from Chris' mom - yummy! She has wild concord grapes nearby. Hmmm, what is it with the inlaws and grapes? -Jess
I wonder if you could substitute the sugar with agave nectar. Agave nectar has a much lower glycemic index than sugar, but I don't know if this substitution would work in a jelly recipe.
I am so happy that you were able to use all the grapes! That makes all the picking and cleaning up worthwhile ( and even tha fall off the ladder)! I'm so happy that Jackson likes it!
Linda: I don't know if it's worth a fall off the ladder, but we all definitely appreciate it!
Lisa: I knew you would have a solution to all that refined sugar!
I did think about your agave nectar, but I was worried that extra liquid would affect how the jelly set.
I wonder if I could find any beet sugar around here???
Your jars turned out much prettier than mine. I didn't think about stewing my tomatoes with oregano and basil; that's a great idea. I'm still overgrown with basil!
Jenny: I know! My basil is as big as a tree! I don't know what I'm going to do with it all-you can only make so much pesto.
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