When You Have Too Many Grapes

The pleasure and danger of being a food writer is that friends call you when they have too much food. This weekend, my friends Ron and Carla said they were cutting their grape arbor. Would I like some grapes? Of course, I said YES!

When I got there, there were nearly 4 large bins full. I took one, but then, they convinced me to take two. This is what they looked like even after my mom took 4 large bags of grapes.

giant bins of grapes!
giant bins of grapes!

I didn’t know what a ridiculous undertaking it would be. It took me two whole days to clean, wash, de-stem and process the grapes.

washed and de-stemmed
washed and de-stemmed

Here is a giant bowl of ripe grapes that my husband washed and de-stemmed for me.

beautifully ripe grapes
beautifully ripe grapes

I put them in a couple of my LeCreuset pots to boil down to make jelly. I ended up doing 4 batches!

ready in the pot
ready in the pot

They boiled down into this plum-colored grape juice. Then, I strained out all the seeds and skins. Put it back in the pot and added sugar to taste. I like my jelly not too sweet, and I’m very bad at following directions.

bubbling over
bubbling over

I ended up using one 4.7-ounce container of Ball brand pectin per pot. I might have been able to use less, but I was worried that the jelly wouldn’t set.

jars and jars
jars and jars

It was like a factory in our house! And the house smelled delicious for days. I ended up putting up over 50 half-pint jars! And over 6 giant bottles of juice. Our juicer was on its last legs, and juicing all those grapes was the final nail in the juicer’s coffin.

over 50 jars canned and sealed!
over 50 jars canned and sealed!

The jelly came out a gorgeous plum color with just a bit of tartness. Whew!

beautiful colors
beautiful colors

 

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