Several years of watching & waiting have paid off. Two years ago, we noticed a self-seeded grapevine on the hill behind the dog kennels. It seemed to have a lot of grapes, but they were rather small. Instead of just cutting it out, the vine was allowed to grow. The ripe grape smell coming from the hillside this year was irresistible. Basket in hand, I went up to see what was there. WOW ....... it must be a good year for grapes. Or a least a good year for grapes growing on dry south facing slopes. The yield was almost half a bushel. Plenty for 2 batches of grape jelly.
Here is the first batch. The second batch is cooling overnight so that it can be strained to remove any crystals forming in the juice. BYW, the new
Ball Blue Book shown above, now calls for
10 minutes in the boiling water bath canner for this jelly. It used to be 5 minutes, but many of the recipes have been revised. I'd suggest
getting the latest 2009 edition ..... it's the 125th anniversary edition. The older copies can be kept as collectibles, but techniques are always being updated.
Several years of watching & waiting have paid off. Two years ago, we noticed a self-seeded grapevine on the hill behind the dog kennels. It seemed to have a lot of grapes, but they were rather small. Instead of just cutting it out, the vine was allowed to grow. The ripe grape smell coming from the hillside this year was irresistible. Basket in hand, I went up to see what was there. WOW ....... it must be a good year for grapes. Or a least a good year for grapes growing on dry south facing slopes. The yield was almost half a bushel. Plenty for 2 batches of grape jelly. 
Here is the first batch. The second batch is cooling overnight so that it can be strained to remove any crystals forming in the juice. BYW, the new Ball Blue Book shown above, now calls for 10 minutes in the boiling water bath canner for this jelly. It used to be 5 minutes, but many of the recipes have been revised. I'd suggest getting the latest 2009 edition ..... it's the 125th anniversary edition. The older copies can be kept as collectibles, but techniques are always being updated.
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