Monday 8 October 2012

Grape success.....



We have two grape vines in our garden, they are both dessert grapes one white and one black. They always produce lots of fruit that taste delicious, unfortunately for those of us totally spoilt by supermarket big fat juicy seedless varieties my homegrown seem so tiny and so full of seeds that they are a real bother to cook with and far too many to eat so most years they get given away.

This year after talking to a neighbour who makes grape jelly in her pressure cooker every year I had another go. My neighbour said she hates the very labour intensive prep of picking the grapes off the stalks so she does just a small amount at a time as they ripen then freezes them ready for when needed. What a great idea, so that's what I did. Freezing also kills off any little bugs I hadn't noticed so felt happier doing it that way too.....or is that just spider cryogenics!!!

I used 2kilo of fruit, half and half black and white grapes plus added a couple of apples for the extra pectin. Straining the pulp down to the clear liquid was a very sticky and messy process and I seemed to use every utensil in my kitchen - got it sorted eventually so will be much easier next time.

And eventually 2 pints of clear juice produced 6 full jars of jelly and a good third in a jar for sampling.
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