Grapes

What do I do with grapes?

This was actually my first year really harvesting a good batch of grapes. They were so overgrown when we got here that it was hard to find them and there were not very many. As I may have mentioned previously, this is my grandma’s yard and she loves every growing thing in it. So, even though the grapes were terribly over run and an unrecognizable variety, I resisted the urge to just tear them out and start over. It turns out that that was the right decision.

When we moved in I didn’t know a lot about grapes so I scoured the interned to figure out how to get mine under control. There was a lot of advice about how to grow them from starts and how to train them to grow on a trellis but I couldn’t find much about how to deal with overgrown vines. Luckily the man I married comes from a family of knowledgeable gardeners who preferred to help me in the yard while their son was at work, rather than go do touristy things. Pretty great, right?

My father-in-law taught me how to prune grapes. We got the vines all cleaned up and straightened out. We even pulled out the chain-link fence they were on and strung a trellis. They look a million times better. But we didn’t get many last year. The ones we did get were pretty tart. I realize now that I picked them too early. I think I was still early this year. Come to find out, if you wait until the first frost they will be much sweeter. So, now you know.

I was not even thinking about starting a blog at that point so I didn’t get any pictures, unfortunately. But I am hoping to do a post about pruning grapes in the spring, so stay tuned if you have vines already. The main thing is don’t tear them out just yet. There is still hope that you can get them back to where they should be.

Washing grapes — We wash them outside first to leave as much mess outside as we can.

How to make juice from grapes

Here is the rundown:

Wash the grapes
pick them off the stem (optional, we liked the taste better)
sterilize jars, lids and rings
load grapes in a steam juicer (see photo)
fill jars with hot juice
process

washing grapes in the sink — Then we wash them again inside. I guess I picked these a little early.

grapes in bowl — We like to take them off the stem because we feel like the stems make the juice bitter.

Grapes steaming — Then we fill up the steam juicer.

Last year I tried straining the grapes. As in pushing the juice through holes. The juice tasted okay but it was murky and greenish, not a very pretty color. The steamed juice was much prettier.

juice coming out of steamer — See how pretty the juice is? Ignore the random pepper.

These are not concord grapes. I am not sure what kind they are but apparently my grandparents didn’t like the taste of concord grapes. Concord grapes have a darker purple juice, but the concept is the same.

Ta-Da!

That’s basically it. It is a fairly simple process but be warned, it can take a long time. You should really plan on it taking several hours, depending on how many grapes you have. You probably won’t have much juice until after an hour of steaming, at least. After that it will go a little faster but if you have time you can get a lot of juice out of those grapes.