My concord grape jam is complete!
I am proud to say that I had my first canning/preserving experience this week 🙂 I picked about half of the grapes off of the vines in the backyard to get a full 5 lbs.
It took longer than expected to pick all of them off the stems. The grapes were so ripe they nearly burst when I pulled them off! Nearly all of them split their skins and several slipped out entirely. Grapes that have popped out of their skins really are quite slimy, especially after being washed off. It was an interesting task to try to grab handfulls of them and drop them through the feeder into my food processor.
This slop is what I boiled down. I failed to get a picture of it sitting and straining after boiling. It’s probably best, seeing as it was nasty! It smelled perfectly delicious, but boy was it gross to look at 😛
I never knew how much sugar went into making jellies and jams! The recipe I decided to use on the internet recommended using no/low sugar pectin so that is what I used. I managed to cut down the normal sugar amount (nearly 7 cups!) in half. This was my happy turn out after pouring and sealing.
Taa-Daa! Ten tasty jars of grape jam! I am a little embarrassed about one thing though. I added a bit too much pectin so it is really quite thick. Oh well, first time lesson learned. It still tastes delicious! So what did I deem appropriate for my first taste? I thought toast, jam, and some of those farm-fresh eggs gifted to me sounded excellent.
I do love scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast on the weekends 🙂 The knowledge of how “homey” the simple meal was made my heart happy. If only the bread had been freshly baked as well! Maybe next time. I look forward to learning more about canning and preserving over the next year.
Thanks for stopping in and I hope to be back soon to share about my trip to A Wool Gathering!
~Lacey
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