So I haven't blogged in months, but I thought today's blog lived true to the name of my blog...making jelly. (You know, the country girl wannabe part). I came home Saturday to two 5 gallon pails of freshly picked grapes and two 5 gallon pails of oranges. Dan had been at his moms all morning harvesting. Aren't they pretty?
First we squeezed 8 quarts of orange juice. Seriously, fresh squeezed oj can't compare to the stuff you buy in the carton.
Next, it was time to clean and separate the grapes. This takes quite a while because you have to pick every grape off of the vine.
Next, you mash the grapes, then cook them down to release the juice. Pretty huh?
You have to strain the juice to get all of the pulp out. No more pictures because this part is so messy I couldn't pick up the camera. Then it's time to cook the juice with the pectin and sugar. Stirring constantly, so again, no camera. But I wish I had taken pictures of the windows. We had so many pans boiling my kitchen looked like a sauna.
But after hours of work, here was our reward.
