Jam Making, Juicing, Freezing - Preserve Your Harvest

What is great about growing your own grapes is when you make products from them you can sort away all the rotten and bug ridden berries and only use the best. 

In commercial operations, they can't do this and the rotten ones and good ones get mixed together then the bad taste is covered up with flavor enhancers. 

Also, you can adjust the sugar levels to your liking.


Jam Making

Great jam can be made. We like low-sugar jams which you cannot find in stores. 

We found the best device to remove skins and seeds is the Victorio VKP250 Food Strainer and Sauce Maker with the VKP250-5 Four-Piece Accessory Pack. It is available on Amazon  

When using it for grapes, make sure you use the "Grape Spiral" and the "Berry screen". This versatile food mill, with the accessory pack, can be used with many fruits and vegetables. Even though it has a hand crank, it is easy to use and does the job quickly and does it well.

Jam recipes can be obtained from the Ball Home Preserving Book  

Juicing

There is a secret to making grape juice and this is the Steamer Juicer.

Here is a video showing how this is done, Steam Juicing How to make and Preserve Grape Juice  


Of the various stainless steel makes and models, I like the VICTORIO VKP1140 the best because it has a stainless steel lid rather than glass that can easily crack or break. And it has a larger bottom pot to hold the water for steaming. Some other makes have a very small bottom pot that runs out of water before you are done. It will also make juice out of other fruit like blackberries, apples, pears, etc.

Steam separates the juice from the skins, seeds and pulp, so there is no need for a food strainer, saving work, time, and mess. And, most importantly, the juice comes out clear and mostly free of pulp – quite ingenious. Any other way of doing this at home leaves a lot of pulp in the juice which detracts from the flavor and texture. This juice can then be hot water canned as is, or you can make it into jelly (not jam, for jam use the food strainer above). It makes 3-4 quarts of juice in about 30-60 minutes. 

While it is heating, you can start up your hot water canner to get that ready for canning.

Freezing

There is no easier way to preserve grapes than freezing. Just sort out the bad berries, rise in fresh water, put in a freezer bag and pop in the freezer. These will maintain quality for about one year - after that flavor and color degrades. No worries, you will have grapes next year from your vines to make a new batch.

The texture of frozen grapes is surprising. You would think it would be hard as a rock - it isn't. They crush easily in you mouth like sorbet.

A delicious and healthy snack.