Making Grape Juice

This post is to show how to get this....

from this...

and this.






First of all I have to say that I use one of these steamers to make my grape juice. If you are serious about making grape juice you must, must, MUST beg, borrow or steal one of these steamers (okay, don't steal - but do procure one somehow)! Prior to using this I had tried several methods of making grape juice including heating and mashing the grapes and straining through cheesecloth, which is too time-consuming and messy and is really a hassle, especially if you are dealing with a large quantity of grapes.

I had also tried one of those juicer machines, and while they may work fine for a carrot-beet-pickle juice cocktail, I would not recommend them for making grape juice.

I never did try the Lucille Ball method and dance around in a vat of grapes. While it looks like it could be a hoot, I don't think I could get past the ick factor. I might wash your feet if I am feeling particularly Christ-like that day, but please don't ask me to eat something that your feet have squished. I just don't think I can do it.

So here we go:

First I fill my canner with quart jars and water up to the rims of the jars. I want to pre-sterilize my jars by boiling them for at least 10 minutes because I will not be heat-processing them later. There are several reasons why I will not be processing my jars, the main one being that the juicer will produce 1-2 jars of juice at a time with enough time in between jars that my first jars have usually sealed by the time I am filling the next few jars, and before I can get a canner full. For extra safety you could put the filled jars into the canner and keep the water just below simmering as you fill the canner up and then process the whole thing for 20 minutes.

To the bottom layer of the steamer I add water. This will create the steam for the steamer.





Keep checking this pan frequently, as you will have to keep adding water over time. This is the part directly on the burner, so it is possible to boil it dry, which you don't want to do...not that I would have any personal experience with that or anything.

On top of the pot of water is the reservior for holding the juice. This has a spigot attached to it that you use to fill your jars.

On top of this is the colander that holds the grapes. See those holes? Those are what the steamed juice will drip through into the juice reservior below.

Now wash your grapes. Here are some lovely Concords.

Add to the colander on top. I try to use at least half of the grapes as Concord grapes. If I use more than half as table grapes it just does not have the same "grapey" flavor that we like. Nothing wrong with using all table grapes, just we prefer a little more of that traditional Concord grape flavor to our grape juice.

Really fill her up - as much as you can fit in and still put on the lid.

Now turn on your burner, start boiling that water and creating steam. (You want your jars pre-sterilized and ready to go before you turn on the steamer because it will start to produce juice fairly quickly. You don't want your juice reserviour to overflow before you have jars ready to fill!)

You can add a little sugar to the grapes in the steamer basket. Or you can add about a tablespoon of sugar directly to each jar as you fill it. Or you can go completely sugarless. But we usually like just a bit of sugar added.

Have your lids simmering in a seperate pot.

Carefully remove a hot jar and using the spigot fill to 1/4 inch from the top. If you are going to process in the canner then leave 1/2 inch at the top. Watch out as you fill the jars. The steam will rise up and can burn your hand if it is held directly over the top of the jars. Wipe the top of the jar with a clean washcloth and apply a hot lid using a magnetic wand lid lifter. (I love my lid lifter!) Screw on a band. You will need to use a washcloth or towel to hold the jar as you screw on the band because it will be very HOT.

I slide mine out of the way now (with a a little air space between jars) and let them cool. At this point you could put the jar back into your canner and keep it warm while you fill the rest of the jars and then process them all for at least 20 minutes and then remove to a towel covered counter to cool. Either way you should check the lids for proper sealing after jars have cooled.

Here is the fruit of my labor. I ended up with 88 quarts of grape juice this year (not all in this picture!) Grape juice anyone?

A Day at the Vineyard and Orchard

Last week the kids were off from school for fall break and before all "the boys" headed up north for deer hunting at Grandma's farm, we decided to spend an afternoon doing one of our favorite fall outings, picking apples. Usually we have headed to Emmett in the past for our apple picking, but this year we drove just a little farther, but in a different direction, and went to Payette. What precipitated this change was that I needed to find some Concord grapes to mix with our table grapes for making grape juice. My usual supply of Concord grapes was unavailable this year and I did not want to pay $1.50 per pound that the nearby fruitstand was asking, as I needed bushels of grapes. I happened to stumble across the information for Shurtleff vineyards on the internet and discovered that they had U-pick concord grapes for $5 a bushel! They happened to be within a mile of Kelley Orchards which offers U-pick apples.

So we loaded up our buckets and boxes and headed to Payette for the afternoon. I called the vineyard first to make sure that there were still grapes available. I did not want to drive all that way and then find out that everything was picked. I spoke to a very friendly lady who gave me excellent directions and assured me that there were still plenty of grapes to be picked. She took my information as well so that we could be added to an e-mail list for future years.

The boys had a blast picking grapes and playing in the vineyard. Here is boy #1 being goofy (as usual!)

Boy #2 hiding in amongst the leaves.

They actually were quite helpful with picking the grapes. And they were so excited about the big clusters.

Here they are in the handy-dandy wagons that the vineyard provided to transport your grapes to your vehicle. They also loved just hiding under the vines and pretending to be things. Sometimes they were pokemon....

Here they are pretending to be the Dionysus. (A little bit of Greek mythology rubbing off on them.)

And having Dad with us made it more fun. Plus he has the muscles and is very handy in situations where heavy loads of fruit need to be transported!

The day was beautiful and the weather was perfect - sunny and in the mid-60's.

It only took us about 20 minutes to pick 2 bushels of grapes (4 5-gallon buckets) - and that included the boys playing a lot and me stopping a lot to take pictures. Then we headed down the road about a quarter of a mile to drop our payment in a drop box at the owner's house. They also will let you just mail them a check, but the house is so close it is really quite easy to just drop off a payment. They use the honor system, which is refreshing to see in these days.

Kelley Orchards

was just down the road, less than a mile.

This week they had Golden Delicious and Jonathon apples available for picking.

The boys once again were eager to fill their boxes.

They competed to see who could find the biggest apple (many of them were huge!)

They pretended to be various pokemon characters who pick apples with their tales, or who climb trees, and all sorts of strange pokemon things....

Delicious!

Most of the apples could be reached from the ground or with a short stepladder...

...or with a boost from dad!

In the end, I finally had to stop them from picking more because I had enough and I did not want to pay for a whole orchard's worth of apples. But they were having such fun that I think they could have picked the whole orchard! We ended up with "only" 112 pounds of apples!

We cut one up for the drive home and, man, was that apple way better than the store-bought one we had eaten for lunch just a few hours earlier.

All-in-all a rather fruitful day.

Got Fruit?

We took a little trip to Fruitland and Payette yesterday to spend the afternoon picking concord grapes and apples. The day was beautiful and it was a super fun family activity. I hope do another post about it with more pictures. We ended up spending $50 and we brought home 2 bushels (about 80 pounds) of concord grapes, 112 pounds of apples and a 50 pound bag of onions (not in the picture). That averages out to about 20 cents per pound! Of course we did have to pay for gas for our little trip, but even including gas it still makes it under 30 cents per pound. And considering that it was a fun family outing, I am not sure that I would even factor in the cost of gas.

The concord grapes are the 4 buckets in the middle, the 3 buckets to the left are table grapes from our own vines. I will mix the table grapes and the concord grapes to make grape juice (also hopefully another post). The apples will be eaten, some dried, some canned for pie filling, but most made into applesauce. (see here) It looks like I will have my work cut out for me!