June Cleaver

Well, that was me today, apron and all! I was given a case of apples and a case with four different kinds of grapes, so I had to process some of this fruit, the grapes were really ripe. Even with the apron I managed to get grape jam on my sweater, but I have Oxyclean, I am woman hear me.....eh whatever, I got a bit carried away there, too much domestic engineering for one day!

There are three kinds of grapes here.....

and the fourth variety, Concord, I think ........

brewing away on the stove see how the color is lightening.......

add the sugar and yum, nearly ready it smells so good, look how the jam has darkened to a beautiful plum color.

I made five large jars and two small from the Concord grapes.

This jar is from the other red grapes, the color turned out much lighter and the taste is quite different. The green grapes I will use for grape juice I think. I will share the jam with my family, DH and I can't possibly eat it all. Our "boys" still love PBJ sandwiches, grown men that they are, and their Mum's home made jam will be a nice change from store bought, nothing but fruit and some sugar in these jars. I used a scant 6 cups of sugar to a generous two quarts of grapes, and doubled those amounts for the concords.

The case of apples, mostly red, just a few green on top. The red are crisper and sweeter but I will freeze all of it. The donor of this bounty has an orchard and grape vines that produce a huge harvest every year, even though the trees and vines are pretty much ignored- they can't use all the fruit so he gives it away by the truck load!

This is what I have frozen already, about half of the box. When I want to use the frozen fruit, I take a bag from the freezer and it goes directly into a pot on low and I cook till it breaks down to a delicious applesauce with a little cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, perhaps a bit of sugar. If I want to make apple strudel, apple pie or French apple tart, I let the apple slices thaw- I have already treated them with a little citric acid so that they won't brown, apples freeze really well.

Not sure when I will have the energy to process the remainder of the apples, perhaps next week, my hands are discolored and a bit sore from today's effort so I need to give it a day or two rest!

Back to quilting tomorrow.