The grapes are coming on, and last week we started the Great Grape Get-Along.
Pick, pluck, press, process.
Repeat.
Right now I feel like I will be doing this clear until Christmas day.
But I dearly hope it won’t really take that long.
😛
Cooler weather chased the wasps away, and traps took out the yellow jackets. You know what surprised me? With the yellow jackets gone, guess who came to call?
Honey bees! I don’t know enough about them to know if they were after the sugars or the water, but the vines positively hummed.
It was a beautiful song, let me tell you.
To make easier work of the juicing, we borrowed the family’s cider press, lined it with cheesecloth, and walla! We got about 2 gallons in 2 hours.
We took the remaining pulp, covered it with water, boiled it, and ran it through the food strainer. It made the prettiest purple! And will make for some awesome jam.
Creative Wending 
We had a dishpan or two of grapes that grow up our kitchen stairs. Hand plucking just that amount took time. Then I set some of the skins aside by popping the inner grape out by hand. That was pureed separately and added back into the jelly pot after we had the seeds out. We had fun, but it was a small batch. I am glad you have tools and lots of little helpers. May all your jam be jammy, all your jellies gel and may you all enter this new season in good health.
The kids love popping the grapes out of their skins. Not sure if it’s the feeling or the sound, but because of it the grapes start the process fairly well worked!
So far I haven’t gotten any of my jellies to gel except for the 1 cup test batch I tried first. I have checked my math on the amount of pectin/ processing times on two occasions, but for now I’ve given up to focus on juice. I’ll revisit the jelly later, methinks!