Grape News!

Okay, after a very serious, and still relavant post, a little update of several farm topics. The wild grape jelly follow up... I picked lots of clusters of wild grapes, as you can see here:

Then I pulled all of the grapes off the stems into a bowl in preparation for making the jelly...thank goodness for mindless Sunday football. A big bowl ensues:

And so, after perusal of many recipes on the web to help me with my jelly making dilema, I chose one I thought would meet my ability level and got to work. I had to add sugar (organic, of course) and the pectin at the proper moment, but that was pretty much it. I had to make it in two batches, as there was so much juice. So one batch survived, and one, not so much. Lesson learned? Yes. I am not yet sure about the final result, except to say, you would NEVER think of this immediately as "grape jelly" by taste. Though the color is astounding, and since I had to squeeze the pulp through a cheesecloth and had purple palms for days - I can tell it would make a great natural dye.

One batch set, the other did not, so I tossed that one.

Sauerkraut finally emerged from the crock - and it was a huge success! I had to spread the wealth - and it was loved by all who tasted it! Next year we will do more! Mary, Fran, Cheryl, tell the folks how you liked it?

So, there we are, Sauerkraut and grape jelly...who knew?