A couple of days ago, I harvested this huge basket full of grapes. This was our second harvest of this size this year. The first harvest made 7 pints of grape jelly. This time I made that same amount, plus had a couple of cups left over for us just to drink as grape juice. Grape jelly is relatively simple. Step 1: harvest, wash, remove grapes from stems
Step 2: Add about a half a cup of water, boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
Step 3: Separate the juice from the skins and seeds. First, I tried pouring it through a strainer. That got most of the juice out. Then I wrapped the grapes in cheesecloth and hung them above a bowl. I got quite a bit more out this way.
Step 4: Profit! Okay, silly joke, and I know that's not even the right step number, but I had to throw that in there to see if my South Park fan friends are paying attention. I just followed the directions on the pectin package, adding sugar and pectin and then using the boiling bath method. We also had a lot of ripe tomatoes. Those are easy. Cut, squish into the jar to create some juice, add a little lemon juice, can.
I had never seen a tomatillo before last year. They grow in a husk. When the husk is full of fruit and the tomatillo is starting to burst out of it (picture the Incredible Hulk), they are ripe.
When removed from the husk, the tomatillos are sticky. Very strange. I cut them in half and roasted them, then added onions, garlic, jalapenos, lime juice, and a few other ingredients, blended them all in the food processor . . .
and made salsa verde.
John planted some black beans this year. They look just like green beans on the vine, but you wait until they are brown and kind of dry before you pick them.
Then all you have to do is pop out the black beans . . .
And set them out to dry for another day or so, then they are ready to store as dry beans.
