I still remember the sour sweat of a hot, late summer day when I was around ten years old. My cousins and I had been playing up the hill on “Tea Table Rock”…a stone outcropping about forty feet up the hillside across the creek from Grandma’s house. We laid out soft, damp moss for tablecloths and served “tea” in our little cups made from acorn caps. It kept us busy for hours and our sole purpose was to stay outside and play as long as possible. 

We were afraid if we went inside to get something to eat, Grandma might corral us into some chore or another or…God forbid…she might make us wash up. So, instead of heading into the house to eat, we snuck down to Grandma’s truck garden tucked in a small triangular space bordered by the creek, the hill, and the road. She grew an awful lot of food in that little space. We probably grabbed a tomato or two, and maybe some carrots…I don’t remember. What I DO remember is dessert!

We crawled under the sheltering canopy of leaves covering the grape arbor. Located right on the creek bank, the coolness of the shade was nearly shocking to our sunburned skin. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, all we needed to do was reach up and grab handfuls of the Concord grapes that Grandma made the best grape jelly from. I loved those grapes…warmed by the sun. 

There was a trick to eating them. You popped the grape in your mouth, slipped the innards out with your tongue for a quick burst of sweet juice, swallowed that part down so you didn’t have to spit out the seeds, then pressed the skin of the grape to the roof of your mouth and sucked hard. What you got was an amazing blast of sour grape. When it was gone, you spit out the skin. Heaven!

When I went to the roadside produce stand earlier this week, they had quarts of Concord grapes. I smelled them before I saw them…that familiar heady aroma took me right back to those youthful days of looting Grandma’s grape vine. I pulled out my phone for a grape jam recipe to figure out how many to buy. Three-and-a-half pounds of luscious goodness went into my buggy. I added four big sweet yellow onions, five pie pumpkins, a flat of tomatoes, and ten pounds of Braeburn apples for a grand total of $55! Not a bad haul.

I finished the salsa on Wednesday so I started on the grapes yesterday morning. I knew they were going to be labor intensive because I had in mind a certain way I wanted to make my jam. After washing the grapes, I stood and painstakingly slipped the skins off of each one…dropping the pulp with the seed in a large saucepan and the skins in the bowl of my food processor. I gathered all my canning tools, set the lids and rings on the heat in a medium saucepan to simmer and the jars in the water bath canner to sterilize set on high heat.

I simmered the pulpy centers of the grapes till they were soft and the seeds could be easily removed. Then I puréed the skins, added them to the grape pulp and mashed away with a potato masher then set it all aside. Once the pulp was cooled, I pressed the whole thing through a sieve by hand to remove the seeds and any wayward stems that might have fallen in. I threw away the seeds and the dried pulpy bits that wouldn’t go through the sieve then ran the whole thing through the sieve one more time.

I was left with a deep purple sludge the consistency of a melted milkshake that smelled of grapes and sunshine. I had almost enough to to make two batches of jam so I added about a half a cup of bottled unsweetened Concord grape juice to make up the difference. I made two batches of jam in the Ball TechFresh Jam & Jelly Maker that I told you about the other day. I’m still tweaking the recipes a little because it has a tendency to make the end product a little too thick for my taste. I ended up with eight jars of the best grape jam I think I’ve ever had. Still, no comparison to Grandma’s grape jelly, but a good close second.

Today, I tackle the apples!

❤️

“And when you pick your grapes, go over the vines only once, then let the poor have what is left.”

Deuteronomy 24:21 CEV