From vine to jar

The other day we made grape jelly from the grapes growing on the arbour outside the kitchen window.  We planted these grapes not for the fruit but for the privacy factor offered by the vigourous leaves.  A side benefit this year though was a bumper crop of grapes.  I think these are reisling grapes but since we leave it to the wine makers to do the winemaking honours we decided to try making a grape jelly.

 Now I've made jam for years from blackberries, plum, strawberries etc., but jelly making was a bit of a mystery to me.  No more.  It's actually very easy.  The only difference is that you first cook the crushed fruit and then strain it through a jelly bag to get the clear juice needed to make the jelly.

 

 We started out using a cloth bag suspended from the cupboard but since we were making more than one batch I went out and purchased the jelly strainer.  It worked beautifully.

After just a couple of hours of work this is what we produced.  Seventeen jars of beautiful grape jelly.  And it tastes delicious.  I think we'll be making this an October ritual in years to come.