GRAPE JUICE

Today we brought in our first grape harvest of the season.  Four years ago we planted a Bluebell grapevine and it's been a good producer.  Bluebell is a table grape and, unfortunately, it has seeds, making for more work.  Last year I used our entire harvest to make grape sorbet.  Delicious!!!  This year we have a lot more to harvest so the first thing I made, today, was grape juice.   Here's the process.

MAKING GRAPE JUICE
*  Pick the ripe grapes off the stems,  and put them in a large pot.  Mash them with a potato masher.  This was my first problem  - I don't have a potato masher.  Not a big problem though,  I simply put the grapes into my old vintage ricer, crushed the grapes, then dumped the crushed grapes into the pot.

*  The next step is to cook the grapes.  Put the pot on the stove, cover the pot, and bring the heat up to a simmer.  Simmer for ten (10) minutes.

*  Next, the mixture needs to get strained.  This was my second problem.  I planned to use cheesecloth over my pasta strainer, until I looked for my cheesecloth and realized that I had used it up.  So, I got out my large sieve with a fine mesh  and slowly strained the mixture into a bowl.  When that was done, I put it all into a large jar to refrigerate it for use.

The juice is delicious and sweet without adding any sugar.  It is organic and healthy.  This would also be a good base to make sorbet.  That will be my job for the next grape harvest.

P.S.  After posting this I bought a potato masher and made another batch of the grape juice.  The potato masher is the way to go!