I had a lesson in making grape jelly today. From Cheryl. Remember, if you will, that she is a former Home Ec teacher. So she knows her shizzle when it comes to being canning and all things domestic. We had grapes from my cousin's house in Logan. Lori & her family live in what used to be my maternal grandparents' house. So - hey - free grapes! My mom had already done that hard part, which is boiling the grapes and straining them (many times) to get the juice. I am so surprised at how easy it is to make jelly! It's definitely something I could pull off on my own. Maybe next summer with our blackberries from our CSA order. Once you have the juice, the worst part is waiting for the juice to boil. Lots of stirring.
My mom rocks.
We made 3 batches, which filled around 30 jars with grape jelly.
Here's my stash of jelly. I'm surprised that I got to bring home so many jars! My dad eats jelly pert near every day. Seriously - I kid you not. If there's bread to be had, he thinks it's just better with grape jelly. I asked him if he could "make due" with one jar a month, and he said, "Well, it depends on how much company we have". Oh, Curtie, you crack me up. He should be fine - unless the grape crop is bad next year. Entirely possible. There is no way we will use all of our jelly, so I plan on giving some out as gifts and keeping some as an emergency stash for my dad.
