Canning Cookbook- Grape Jam

I have very generous friends. The kind of friends that call or text me and ask me if I just want to take a huge bowl of fresh-picked grapes off her hands. Silly question- of course I do! I never turn down a freebie!  In this case it was my super sweet friend Sarah who has an ages-old grapevine at her house. She and I had gone to a grapevine workshop earlier in the spring so she could figure out how to tame The Beast (click HERE to read about it).

Once I had the grapes home, all cleaned and ready to work with (THAT was a horrifying experience with insects but I guess makes them truly organic!) I started to research different recipes. I searched everywhere I could look for something other than grape jelly or jam and had no success. Grape juice sure, but that's not I wanted. So......grape jam it is! I will be using the directions from the Bernardin canning website so it is NOT my recipe and has been tested and certified safe for those who stick to approved-only recipes.

I chose this recipe because it is a smaller batch, and I certainly didn't need any more jam but didn't want to waste the fruit, and also since you need to separate the skin from the flesh- it will take a while but not as long as a bigger batch. I have never worked with grapes at all, so we're learning this one together, guys! I have Concord grapes to play with, but this recipe works equally well with any grape that makes a good jam or jelly including some of the sweeter wine grapes- good to know since Iowa has over 100 wineries/vineyards!

We are going to need-

8 cups stemmed Concord grapes

1/2 cup water

6 cups sugar

Place a metal spoon and plate in the freezer. Trust me, you'll need it later.

Wash and drain the grapes well. Make sure to remove alllll the multi-legged friends that come with things you've grown outdoors. Use your fingers to pinch each grape, forcing the pulp into one saucepan and the skin into another. 

Didn't think that pinch trick would work but it sure did!

Add the water to the grape pulp and bring to a boil. 

Looks like a pot of eyeballs- slimy and gross

Boil gently for 10 minutes stirring once in a while. Press the pulp through a sieve to remove the seeds and set aside for now.

Looks like a big hassle but it went very quickly.

Next, chop the grape skins, I gave mine a quick buzz in the food processor. I don't want big hunks of skin in the finished jam. Return skins to their saucepan and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil until the water has evaporated. Thus usually takes about 10 minutes. Combine the skins and pulp.

Before I ran thru the food processor- turned out perfect after

Get your jars ready now- you should always wash them before you start. I like to hold the clean jars in the boiling water bath canner until it's time to fill them.

Place the grape mixture into a deep stainless steel pot. Add all of the sugar. Bring mixture to a boil slowly, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and boil vigorously until the mixture reaches the gelling point. This takes about 25 minutes, but don't plan your day on that 25 minutes. It took mine quite a bit longer.

How can you tell if it's reached the gel point? Well, remember that spoon we put in the freezer? Remove the pot from heat for a minute and grab that frozen spoon. Dip it into the jam mixture and quickly move away from pot. Mixture should coat the spoon, and if you put a couple drops onto a frozen plate, it will form a soft-set jam just like in the stores. 

Remove jars from hot water. Working quickly, ladle the jam into the hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim of jar and fix lids and rings. Process the jam for 10 minutes in the boiling water bath (start timing when the water is fully boiling). Let the jars rest in the water for 5 minutes off the heat before removing to a towel or rack to cool. You will hear the distinctive POP as they cool and seal. Let them rest 24 hours before removing rings, checking for seal and storing. I got nine half-pints from this recipe.

Aren't jams easy? No straining, no hours waiting on a jelly bag to empty, no worries about cloudiness. Jams are great recipes for starting canners and most fruits are a lot less work than grapes.

Fun times in farm land

Have you ever got to pick your own sweet corn? The Chef and I did just that this afternoon. It was a first for us, and after a local farmer invited us to come and pick what we wanted, we weren't about to say no!

Field corn on the left,sweet corn on the right-
what a HUGE difference in size!

Our friend's sweet corn patch was planted right by his huge fields of regular field corn, and the first thing I noticed was the incredible difference in size. The sweet corn was still taller than I am, but the field corn was several feet taller still! The ears were HUGE compared to the sweet corn ears.

It was a hot and humid afternoon and once you got in the middle of the rows, the air just wasn't moving at all. Talk about hot! I was sure I'd die in the middle of the rows and never be found. Just bones among the dead cornstalks. Just kidding of course, the Chef was with so he would have missed me.

Time to get in there and get picking

By the time we were done we'd filled 8 grocery bags. Well......I filled two, the Chef filled the rest. I admit it. There still is enough City Girl left in me that I was miserable and not holding up to hard farm labor very well. I'll be doing my corn canning in air conditioned comfort, that's for sure.

How many of you guys have ever got to experience farm work, or even a pick your own farm? I'd love to hear your stories.

City Girl's Wine Journal- Winestock

I may have missed out on the big city's annual Winefest, but I wasn't going to miss out on this year's Winestock! Dale Valley Vineyard and Winery near Stuart sure knows how to throw a party. So this year, City Girl got to experience a wine festival, country style. Four bands, a beautiful Iowa summer day, lots of great food, vendors with interesting items. And of course, the wine.

My sister Lisa and I don't get to spend a whole lot of time together, with busy work schedules, kids and grandkids, so Winestock became Sister Day, and we thoroughly enjoyed it! Arriving at the winery, we were able to park among the vines and stroll through them on our way to the festival grounds. Of course, our first stop was the outdoor patio/bar and grabbing a pitcher of Red Sangria Winearita. Icy cold and slushy, it was delicious and a great prelude to the wines ahead.

We grabbed the best table in the house, on the covered patio overlooking beautiful lawn and festival grounds, and right next to the stage! The first band up was Larry Berenguel and Friends, and they were awesome! A great mix of hits and a reggae vibe, they played a long set filled with so many great songs. His band is a very talented group of guys and we thoroughly enjoyed their show.

It didn't take too long for the Winearita pitcher to be empty, so we switched to wines and Time Out was our first choice. Time Out is the winery's award winning Concord wine, and it is a sweet red wine. It smells like grape juice as soon as you pour it in the glass (and by that I mean Welch's, since wine is really just that- grape juice) and has a smooth, sweet drinkability that makes it so enjoyable.

Flipside was the next band to hit the stage and they also provided some of the best singalong party music. We also started to mix and mingle with some great folks in the crowd- another pair of sisters from the Quad Cities, folks vacationing from Indiana and lots of great people from the various bands. Singing and dancing, laughing and sharing stories, the breeze is softly blowing, it's a fantastic day in the Iowa countryside.

Lisa and Larry enjoying the party atmosphere

Well that bottle of Time Out didn't last very long, so up next we shared a bottle of Serendipity. Dale Valley describes this wine as a complex semi sweet blend of estate and local grapes offering flavors of apple and lime, hinting at subtle apricot and kiwi. I didn't really pick up any apple or lime but this lush, and less sweet, wine was very floral to me. Perfumey and delicious. This is another red that's a great sipping wine and delicious well chilled.

The music continues with Boomerang- they opened with Badfinger and it just got better from there. Lots of songs from my childhood-what a great trip down memory lane! They interacted well with the crowd and even a little rain didn't spoil the show. Funny story there- sitting under the canopy we had no idea it was even raining!!

Our next bottle was a drier red- Katydid. Katydid is made from Marechal Foch grapes (my favorite Iowa red grape) and is aged with oak for a little bit drier but not overly tannic wine that's amazing. It's also a multiple award winner for the winery. Our ice in the bucket had pretty much melted by now and that's fine, because this wine is best not overly chilled. It went fabulously with the pork chop on a stick and house-made kettle fried chips and reminded me a lot of Pinot Noir.

Abby Normal was the last band of the event. A little bit of everything, from the Beatles to White Stripes to the Scorpions kept the crowd dancing and singing along. The evening was winding down and the band was packing up, time to say goodbye to new friends and think about how much fun NEXT year will be, and time to grab a bottle to take home. The night was still young and it would be a great night to sit on the deck at The Little Lake House and enjoy a last glass or two and listen to the sounds of the country night. So White Schoolhouse it is, and a quick rest in the wine chiller gave it the perfect chill to bring out the hints of peach and stone fruits and ever so slight hint of citrus from this perfect award-winning wine.

It was a great Sister Day, a great Winestock and a great way to spend a Saturday. I can't wait for next year!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."