My friend (don't have a blog nickname for her yet and have to ask) has a giant grapevine from which she gave me pounds and pounds of lovely, dark purple grapes. Now what to do with all of them? We ate some, and then I told Mr. Strega that I wished to make jelly.
True to my Italian nature, I really enjoyed crushing all those grapes (in a big pot, using a potato masher). Then I strained the resulting mush overnight in a colander lined with muslin, and royal purple juice strained out all night. We then boiled the juice with a bunch of apples (to increase the pectin), and stored the results in a big pitcher.
Now my kitchen smells like burnt sugar (from boilovers) and there are purple jelly droplets everywhere, even though I've cleaned up, and I have five jars of grape jelly, three large and two small. I feel like I've linked yet again to my mother and grandmother, as we had fruit trees in the backyard where I grew up, and they canned jam and fruit all summer. Plus, my friend worked really hard to get the grapes off those vines, and I wanted to honor her hard work and also not waste anything. I wonder if the current economic times will make me like some of the folks I know who grew up in the Depression, finding a use for everything and wanting to waste nothing.
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