How to: Make Grape Juice

 Welcome! Today, rather than my bench we shall make grape juice. First, Get yourself some grapes! Okay, more than some. ALOT of grapes...as in several pounds. Grapes don't give off that much juice, so I would suggest buying from a farmer rather than a grocery store. Don't worry if it has seeds, they arn't a problem for us.

I have some variety of white grape from the farm. My boyfriends dad planted it years ago and this spring the sheep "pruned" it back. Thanks to the pruning the vine grew like crazy and is loaded with fruit.

 Now rinse them and look for spidery/caterpillary stuff and rotting grapes. Get those out of the way

 Run your fingers down the stems and gently pull the grapes off. Don't worry if you squish a few, just try not to get too much stem in the pot. I destemed a couple pounds in a matter of minutes. Once you have your pot full crush your grapes, then you should have room for more in the pot.

 Bring to a boil and them simmer the crushed grapes for 10 minutes, continuing to crush the whole one occasionally. Once you have them crushed and cooked pour a ladle or two into a colander lined with cheese cloth with a bowl underneath the collander to catch the juice.

 Let it drip then once the dripping gets slow take up the corners of the cheese cloth and carefully squeeze. DON"T squeeze the mush out the top of your cheese cloth onto the wall. Not that that ever has happened. To me at least. ....

Yum?

Anyway, gently squeeze the juice out and once you arn't getting much juice toss that pile of mush into your compost or around your flowers. Its good stuff. I found rinsing the mush off the cheesecloth between each use made it go faster, but that's just me.

Now I understand why people stomp grapes. arrrrrggg!!

 Once you collect your juice pour it into a glass container and put it in the 'fridge for 12 hours to let the sediment settle. Once it settles pour off the juice into a pot, bring it to a boil, add your sugar if you wish and enjoy!