Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Real Concord Grape Juice

Do you know about the health benefits of concord grapes? I know they are supposed to be good for your heart health, but I need to learn more, I suppose. I just know they are really good for you...

Well, this year, I had the "opportunity" to get some concord grapes through our fruit stand. They were pricey, but I didn't have anyone else to buy them, so I took an afternoon and made grape juice. It would have been fine if I didn't have to go through each bunch looking for moldy ones. (Note - I got to them as fast as I could - three days was just too long.)

I ended up doing (and sorting) 50 pounds worth of grapes. Boy, did they smell good - and look good, mostly.


After sorting and washing them, I threw them into my trusty juicer/steamer. The house radiated the smell of sweet grape juice.


And into the bottles for a quick water bath of 10 minutes. I ended up with about 12 quarts of actual juice.


Lessons learned: If you get grapes, do them the day you get them. Concord Grapes make amazing juice. Free grapes are best. Buying Concord grapes make really expensive juice.
Buying real 100% grape juice from the store seems way more worth it - no matter the cost. But I will hoard and enjoy every last drop of the juice that I made.

4 comments:

Brenda said...

The juice looks so good and pretty too. I bet it would make awesome grape jelly!

Kim said...

What kind of steamer/juicer do you have? My mom wants one for Christmas and I know nothing about them!

Jamie said...

Kim - let me know if you see this comment - I am not sure what my juicer is, but I know this one here is a good one: http://www.histakes-spelt.com/juicer.php
Namely because it is stainless steel. Look for that in your search.

Kim said...

Thanks, Jamie!

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