Our concord grapes are ready to pick. I wait until most of the bunch ripens to pick them. The early summer drought kept the grapes from getting large. But they are juicy, and very tart - just right for making good grape jelly.So today I got up early and went out to pick the grapes. They hang in big bunches and are easy to pull off the vine. We only have one Concord Grape vine and this produces all the grapes we need for making jelly, most of which I give away for gifts, etc.
I use the low sugar recipe and put the jelly in pint jars. It's quite a process and I allot an entire day to making jelly. Sometimes I just get the juice from the grapes and freeze it to make jelly in the winter. That's probably what I will do today as I have some other things I have to do that would get in the way of jelly making.
I will wash the grapes after I pick them off the stems. This time I'm going to try crushing them in my food processor before I put them in water and boil them to get the juice out of the hulls. I let the juice cool and put it in freezer bags, just the right amount for one batch of jelly. You have to make jelly in single batches or it won't jell properly and you have grape syrup! I usually end up with one batch of syrup every year. Good on pancakes, so I don't discard it.
Just behind me in the first photo you can see other vines; dark red or wine-colored muscadines/scuppernongs.
They also make good jelly but usually we just eat them. And next to that vine is my favorite - the sweet, bronze scuppernongs. Beginning mid August, we can go to the "vineyard" throughout the day and pick and eat. We can usually find these little gems hidden among the leaves until late September.
There's nothing better than "going to the scupperlin' vine" for a good snack. I have memories of doing this in my childhood also. When we lived with Mama and Papa Wilson (until I was 11), the scuppernong vine
was on a trellis and they didn't prune it and the vine reached the ground on all sides. My sisters and I made an opening to get inside the "cave" and this was where we would go to play. It was dark inside, and usually much cooler than outside.
I learned in my Master Gardening class that you trim the vines back to the "mother vine" in early spring and you will get grapes on the new growth, and not have tangled vines that make it hard to get to the grapes. I did this and it works! Jim thought I was destroying the vines and couldn't bear to watch me prune the limbs away in February. Now he's a believer in what I did!I design and print labels to put on my jars of jelly. Sometimes I pack some of my homemade jellies, jams and preserves (especially pear and fig) and use as a door prize for various occasions, and my gift is always popular.
