Growing grapes is one of my favorites! You can grow them up on arbors and trellises so they don’t have to claim a lot of space in your garden. There’s not much that is more delightful than walking under a grape vine with bunches of grapes hanging down in profusion. They aren’t hard to grow, the only pest that I have had any trouble with is birds.
As soon as the grapes start getting ripe I see my grandkids running from one vine to another filling their mouths, and there seems to be a never-ending supply. My two vines are prolific! They provide me with all the raisins and the juice that I need until the next harvest.
People often associate grape juice with concord grapes which are dark purple grapes. They make a great juice, but you can use any variety. I have planted seedless eating varieties that are great for eating, making raisins and they also make great juice. I have a Himrod, which is a big juicy green grape, and also a Candice, which is a smaller pinkish grape. They both make great juice. My grapes start ripening in September. I like to pick enough for just one batch at a time and leave the rest on the vine to stretch out the season so we can just walk outside and eat.
I use a steamer juicer.
It has a base for water, then a receptacle for the juice, a basket for the fruit and the lid.
I’ll show you how to do the whole process from vine to bottles in the video below.
The basic steps are:
- Pick your grapes.
- Wash the grapes outside so you don’t have spiders and earwigs running around in your house.
- Fill the base of the steamer with water and set it on the stove. If you are doing multiple batches be sure to add water to the base between batches.
- Load up your steamer basket with grapes.
- Place the basket in the juice receptacle.
- Place the juice receptacle on the base and turn your stove to high. Once the water is boiling turn it down to low heat, just enough to keep the water steaming.
- Put your bottles in the oven on “keep warm.” Don’t ever put hot juice in a cold bottle. It will break.
- Boil your lids.
- Wait a couple of hours and then check your grapes.
- When it looks like all you’ve got is empty skins and stems it is done.
- Fill the bottles using the tube on the receptacle.
- Wipe the rim of the jar so that it is completely clean.
- Place the lid on the jar and then screw the ring on.
- Set the jar aside and let it cool. It will seal as it cools.
- Check the seal before you put it in storage.
Good luck! and have fun making your homemade juice!
Check out my other posts
Is home canning safe? http://itsjustaproject.com/is-home-canning-safe/
Making Raisins http://itsjustaproject.com/making-raisins/
