Grape Jam

Saturday afternoon began the official start to preparing for winter at mom and dad's house with the first gathering of firewood. Loaded up in the truck, we headed over to my Uncle Dennis and Aunt Jill's house. They recently cleared out several trees and had gathered the logs into a large pile prepared for future cutting.

Dad began the task of cutting the logs into manageable sizes to load into the truck. As he was working, Uncle Dennis made his way out to us and informed us the grapes were ripe for picking if we wanted any. Yes!

Mom, Raleigh, and I made our way to the grape arbors and right away tasted the goodness of the harvest! In actuality I think if we had been a week earlier we may have had even more to pick, but we gathered two bags full of sweet treats. While picking (and eating) Raleigh and I had a discussion about how they made

seedless grapes. The grapes we were picking were not seedless. Neither of us had a good answer. It was fun to speculate and hear some of his explanations anyhow!

With two bags of seeded grapes in hand we needed to make a decision as to what to do with them. With a few recipe searches I decided we would make grape jam. Raleigh was in on the action with me! --Except for going to Walmart to get some supplies. I even tried pulling his own puppy dog look and begging trick on him and to no avail I went to the store by myself! 

We picked and sorted all the good grapes from the branches. Added them to a pot of water on the stove and let them simmer for a bit to release their juices.  Raleigh enjoyed the next step he called "jamming the grapes." We cranked and cranked and cranked the juicer to separate all the seeds and skins from the juice. 

Satisfied that we had pressed out all the juice we could, we added the fruit pectin and sugar to boil into a delicious syrupy thickness. There was some debate as to what step to follow next for proper sealing of the jars. I've never made jam on my own and with mom present she advised on the techniques she remembered doing with her mom but we didn't have what was needed. The technique I wanted to try wouldn't work either because I didn't have the proper equipment. The deciding factor ended up being neither technique!

Once the jam had boiled the correct amount of time it became all hands on deck. I ladled the jam into clean jars (sloppily!), mom cleaned the rims of the jars, and dad followed behind to screw the lids on tightly. This is where the internet made the ultimate decision for how to seal the jars. After the lids were placed the jars were turned upside down and the heat (and some science I don't understand) would create a vacuum seal.

There ended up being too much jam to fit in the small jars so what was left I poured into a larger mason jar. At this point we were all licking the leftovers from the spoons and pan. What would go with this left over still warm and oh so good jam? Ice  cream!

Friends, it may sound like an odd combination to put grape jam on ice cream, but I'm here to say...don't knock it til you've tried it! I may just have to create a new ice cream flavor....

Anyhow that's the adventure of grape picking and jam making from the other day! The bottom picture is to prove I did still help with the wood gathering and loading! A tractor driving lesson was also given. Let's just say I need a few more lessons. Preferably on a tractor that has more then just 3rd gear and reverse!  Oh and for those worried about the dog so close to the tractor with me driving...I had already parked the tractor and it was turned off.

I have decided I will just never be photogenic. Look at Raleigh crank those grapes though! He meant serious business!