Grape Juice - one taste of fall

I was very blessed this week to be on the receiving end of pure grace in the form of three boxes of concord grapes. I say grace, because the definition of grace is the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. I did not work for these bunches of delight, nor did I do something for which I was rewarded. They came as an unexpected gift, a bestowal of blessings in the form of orbs of pure delight. I'm thankful to the friends who grew and cared for them and so freely shared them with me.

In my spare moments (it's been an unusual week but that is another post) I've been stemming grapes and I found myself singing this hymn all week, both hymnal and Godspell version...All good gifts around us, are sent from heaven above,
              So thank the Lord, Oh thank the Lord for all His love. 

Though I have canned literally hundreds of quarts of grape juice by the "quick and easy" method of putting stemmed grapes, sugar and boiling water in jars to strain out later and dilute to taste, I really prefer the old fashioned "simmer and drip" method I grew up with and helped mom do many times as a child. I love the strong grape flavor of juice produced this way.

It takes several washing to clean the grapes...back and forth into fresh clean water-another of those gifts from above. Once they are clean, it's time to stem, then place in a pan, smooch them around a bit and add some water...lots of directions say to cover in water, but I just add enough that they can swirl around a bit as the grapes add their own liquid. 

Bring to a very gentle simmer and let simmer for 15 minutes or so...the grapes burst and the smell is heavenly! Then I put my big strainer inside of a large pot and line it with my juice dedicated pillow case--it turns all sorts of lovely shades depending on the fruit I'm juicing. I pour my hot smooched grapes into the pillow case. Then I slowly lift it up and all the fruit pulp settles to the bottom of the pillow case and the juice runs out into my pot. Then I transfer the pillowcase full of pulp to the clothes line and let it continue draining into a bowl placed below:

I realized after taking the picture I should have taken it before I emptied this bowl which was about half full of juice. I did the grapes in two batches and ended up with three and a half gallons of juice, which I put in jars in the fridge to keep till I could can it.

 Then tonight I was ready to can it. I put all the juice in my big stock pot and got it good and hot, but not boiling...

...filled my jars...

...and the canner...

 ...and now I have 14 quarts of rich and luscious grape juice to enjoy over the coming year.

I'm a terribly undisciplined gardener, but I delight in canning.

Come on over and we'll open a quart!

p.s. I love this spoon that I bought a few years ago at Cost Less Market in the Latino food prep items section. I laid a regular teaspoon beside it so you could see its size! Just right for stirring in my stock pot!

 









 

The Roads East...

We had such a nice drive out to Illinois...took Rt. 50 across Nevada and Utah-the Lonliest Road in America! We started from Modesto's elevation of 80 feet above sea level and crossed Carson Pass at 9,640 and back "down" into Carson City to begin our trek across Nevada at a mere 4,697. Route 50 is 2 lane, but very little traffic (drove 70-75+mph most all of the time)...and lots of scenery like this as we made at least a dozen ups and downs over passes through the hilly landscape.

We stayed just outside of Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada the first night and spent the next morning driving up into the mountains and enjoying the views. My "aha" moment came in the Visitor's Center where there is a giant relief map that shows this huge mountainous basin that is Nevada, most of Utah, some of Oregon and a bit of Idaho and California. I had never put all that together as a unit before...which geologically has to do with watersheds. Really interesting. (look it up:  Endorheic Basins) This is a panoramic view coming down the road from the Wheeler's Peak (13,159) overlook at about 8,500 ft.

 Driving through Utah, the scenery really started to change...

then we merged into I-70 and headed into Colorado, where we spent the night in a very nice little Mom & Pop type motel--my first experience of using my smart phone to locate housing and how to get there! The next day, July 4th, we drove along the Colorado River as we headed toward Leadville to spend the afternoon and night with my Myers cousin, Linda, and her husband, George.

Below are the mountains that came into focus as we left I-70 to go south to Leadville, CO, elevation 10,152 ft.-highest incorporated city in lower 48, I believe. Had to go over Tennessee Pass (elevation 10,424ft) to get there! We had several dozen jars of fruit-mostly apricots, but some pears and peaches and jam, too. In my head I know the science of vacuum sealing that the canning process is, but I put rings on all the jars just the same before I left home. : )  Somewhere in the up and down of the Tennessee Mnt. pass, we heard the distinctive ping that canning folks everywhere would recognize, except that it was the unsealing, rather than the sealing, of a jar. But only one.

We had a delightful afternoon visit with family, a grilled dinner and a great view of the Leadville's fireworks! They were pretty spectacular and seemed to go on for a really long time.

Early the next morning we headed off for our longest day on the road (and our highest pass crossing of the trip-Fremont Pass 11,319 ft.-no pinging, which was a great relief). After going downhill into Denver, we descended onto the Great Plains, ranging from around 3,000 ft. elevation in the west to under 1,000 ft. at Kansas City on the eastern side. We were just at the tail end of wheat harvest and most of Kansas looked a lot like this:

We spent the night in Missouri and, once again, the landscape changed as we neared our destination of Hutsonville, IL-elevation 436 ft. Jeshua says they live in the middle of cornfields and it is certainly true--and soybeans.

So happy to see everyone--and quickly jumped out of our "tourist/traveling" roles and back into our best fitting Grandma and Grandpa ones! Abby-3 3/4 yrs;  Caleb-1 1/2 yrs.

A Lapsed Blogger

July 12, 2014

Well, after a whole year of not blogging due to whatever happened with Xanga, I believe I've come back to the blogging world...not so much for any of you who read this, but for myself.  I like the discipline of journaling (and sometimes reflecting) and being able to do it digitally and add pictures makes it a fun activity for me. I do like being able to share my west coast life with my east coast (and other) family and friends who are interested. I hope that the fact that it took a year to get myself switched over and going again is not indicative of my ability, inability, openness or unwillingness to adapt to change (but it may say more about me than I wish)!

My last Xanga post was June 27, 2013 as I was celebrating my upcoming 60th birthday in Illinois at the Moonshine Cafe, and today finds me in the same location (visiting Jeshua & Sara, Abby and Caleb). Today we went to Villa's Country Store, a local Amish store that sells a combination of bulk foods, baked & canned goods, deli counter, bulk frozen fruit and meat, general groceries, some garden produce and an assortment of salvage foods and other items. Fun to visit...it is the one place in my current travel circles that I can get sweet Lebanon bologna--a Pennsylvania Dutch taste explosion memory of my childhood. 

On the way back home to Hutsonville, we drove down the lane of a farm with a "Blueberries for Sale" sign. Two little Amish children came to meet us--maybe 5 & 7. I asked if there were blueberries for sale. The little girl stopped running toward us, tilted her head a bit (obviously processing my question), took a big breath and asked, "Do you want to pick them yourselves or put in an order?" About that time I saw Dad standing in the door of the shop watching her take care of us. Very sweet! We said, "Yes, we would like to pick!" and he set us up with buckets and an over the shoulder rope and hook and off we went.

Jeshua is currently making a blueberry sauce and Sara is planning blueberry-lemon muffins for supper. Yum!