Grape Juice

We have LOTS of grapes this year in our garden. I made 7 pints of jelly on Friday, and today we made grape juice. It is more of a grape juice concentrate. We thought of it as we were straining juice from the grapes to make jelly. The juice was so thick and delicious! So instead of putting grapes into a jar with hot sugar water, we simmered the grapes on the stove for about 5 minutes, then strained the juice out. Put back in a pot, add sugar to taste, and pout into quart jars. Hot water bath for 15 minutes.

The sisters hard at work picking out the bad grapes (yes, worms do like grapes. It is very gross when you come across them:-P ) .

Andrea hard at work, washing up the dirty dishes (this is a typical afternoon at our house. Everyone doing their chores and being goofy!):

Joel making faces as he strains the grapes...

Simmering the juice just to heat it back up and melt the sugar.

Pretty grape juice next to the mums dad bought for my "mum":-)

We had 5 quarts survive. I lost 1 1/2 quarts due to the jars breaking as I was ladling in the juice.

I don't know why it happened, as I had the jars hot from the oven.

But it is not easy to clean up that much grape juice from the counters, stove, cupboards, and floor!