it’s grape time! we finally gave in and picked all the grapes last night! we have SO many. it’s retard. the bucket is full, the large bucket is full and a large milk crate is full.

we made the BEST grape juice with the grapes we got last year. so this year, we wanted to make some more. and we started making it today! i think we have twice as many grapes this year, though. i filled seven pint size jars with juice today. and there’s still probably six times more grapes left over. we’re gonna have grape juice comin’ out our ears!

here’s how we made the juice. first we washed the grapes. which in itself it a long time. cause we washed them, separated them, destemed them and then washed and separated again.

then into the pot! we put just enough water to just barely cover the grapes (and in hindsight, that was just a little too much.)

while waiting for it to come to a boil, we took some weird kitchen tool that dan loves and i can never get to work for anything but this, and pushed it into the mixture to smash the grapes a bit.

then let them come just almost to a boil. i have this great strainer the straddles the sides of the kitchen sink and hovers there (you can see it in the photo of the sink above). so, i got that out and for extra straining strength, lined it with a single layer of cheese cloth. (the day got a little hectic here and i forgot to take photos of these last two steps!) put an empty pot underneath, to catch the grape juice and then slowly pour the molten hot grape concoction into the strainer contraption to strain. then back into the pot to get the juice hot so that the jars will seal. carefully, with the help of a funnel, poured the juice into pint sized jars! voila! juice!