We have a happy grape vine crawling along the fence between the house and the road. This year it was very productive, as was the cherry tree that stands a few feet from it. In fact, it was a record year for the vine. We left most of the grapes on the vine, hesitant to pick them before they had ripened as much as possible. Finally, two weeks ago or so, we picked most of the clusters and stored them in a cool, moist space until we had time to deal with them.
Fastforward to today. In the intervening weeks, I’d reviewed the Sure Gel grape jelly recipe and weighed the grapes. About 5.5 pounds. This morning, I cleaned them, plucking them from their clusters, and made jelly. 19 cups of jelly, to be precise! This is not the thick, dark purple jelly we’re used to, since these aren’t Concord grapes. We’re not sure exactly what kind of grapes we’ve got, but even when ripe, most of them are green with only about 10-20% taking on a lightly purple or pink hue. The resulting juice is a beautiful apple cider color, and the jelly is similarly light.
In addition to the jars I canned, I ended up with extra from each of the two batches. I put that extra jelly into glass containers for immediate use from the fridge. And of course, I couldn’t resist trying some! I cut a couple slices of Sweetwater Cafe’s Three-Seed Bread, toasted and buttered it, and then topped it with this lusciously light tasting jelly! A truly delightful way to cap off a snowy, cold morning!
