Grape Jelly

In years past, we haven't had too much production out of the grape vines. Not that we worried to much about it. The seeded variety that I planted aren't much good as table grapes. By the time I usually got around to seeing how they were doing, they had mostly been eaten by birds. I don't think there were all that many clusters at any rate.

What is different this year is a 20-month old grandchild who loves to go out into the 3+ acres we call our yard and just run as far and as fast as he can. He thinks it's a game. Run and see if granddad will follow! We haven't visited the grape vines much in years past because it takes a bit to walk to them. But this year, that's were Matt headed and we followed.

I wouldn't call it a bumper crop, but clearly we had some grapes. So I went out and picked what I could. Then, I realized, we actually hadn't planned on doing anything with them. I just left them on the counter and Jenna, permit in hand, for a drive. (I believe in North Carolina's graduated driving system, but it means a lot of hours just driving around.)

When we returned, Kathy had sorted out the good from the bad and had washed and cleaned. Shortly after that, she had the good stuff simmering in a pot with the required amount of water. I joined in and used the food processor to strain out seeds and skins. Shortly after that, it was time for the pectin and sugar and a bit more boiling.

We had enough rendered jelly to just about fill 4 quarts-worth. We are almost out of canning bottles. We had 4 jelly jars and some pint jars left. The people I've told about it asked if we used a low-sugar recipe. (Thank you all for concern about my diabetes!) No, we used what the recipe called for. My guess is that you don't eat tablespoons full of jelly at a time. The last thing we tried to can as a preserve, peaches, didn't turn out well as a low-sugar product. Of course, the other thing we did this time was to boil the mixture until it was clearly ready to be put into jars.

This evening will be the test. We have some home-baked bread on the way -- the perfect medium on which to test it.