I love our house, and this year, I love our trees and grapevines too. As I explained in an earlier blog, I canned peaches about a month ago, and now it is time to harvest the apples and grapes. Tim went out and bought a juicer and I bought a dehydrator. Both in the name of Tim's birthday. If we have all this fruit every year we are going to have to get this stuff eventually so better sooner than later. I hope my friends forgive me for not making it a girls activity like a planned. There is always next year when I am more familiar with the process and know how much I get.So, Saturday we made made 6 quarts of concord grape juice. We don't have any canning jars so it is just going to have to drunken soon. That is OK . I LOVE concord grape juice. After this week that might change though. Apparently one needs to prepare to be truly prepared. Wal-mart was out of canning jars on Thursday. Anyone know where else to get them? I haven't even had time to look. I guess next year I will know to be more prepared.
Sunday we dried some apples and bananas. They are addictively yummy. The dehydrator sounds like a blow dryer so we need to find a place to put it other than the kitchen or run it at night. It is just white noise but after 6 hours straight, it can get on the nerves. Yes, I worked on Sunday. We also went to church early enough to sit in the chapel instead of the cultural hall (where we usually sit.) Does that cancel it out? Probably not.We made apple juice and applesauce as well. The cool part is that with a steam juicer you make
them at the same time. You have to peel and core the apples. Then you steam the juice out of the apples. It takes about 90 mins and the bounty isn't as much as for the grapes but the pulp that is left behind is the apple sauce. That makes up for the less juice I think. One 1 lb of apples makes 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of juice.
I didn't have any idea it could be so easy. I thought you would have to have some fancy machine or grate apples till it killed you or your hands. I thought to have juice you would need some fancy press machine. The juicer can be used as a blancher and vegetable steamer as well. It has a water pan, a pan to collect the juice, and a metal basket with wholes to hold the fruit.
5 comments:
You are my hero! I've been reading about canning on some of my other blogs, but you are the first non-hippy, pagan-loving person to address the topic, so kudos!
Kristin, Congratulations, it sounds like your simple beginnings with apricots has blossomed into real skill and confidence. By the way, usually canning jars can be purchased at any grocery store and I would think that would especially be the case in Utah where the practice of canning is more common.
I am so jealous. That sounds awesome.
Way to go! That all sounds like so much fun and now you have some amazing food storage. . .well, not the grape juice unless you wish to make wine, which I hear isn't bad as long as it is made by your own hands. ;) How I wish we lived closer and could have fall food storage parties. I suppose we'd also need some fruit trees to help contribute. Something other than peaches, grapes and apples. . .cherries?
Places have been out of canning jars for months now. It's a big deal this year.
I have been looking for them for almost two months. Wide mouth quart jars. You can sometimes find the small mouth jars...but I HATE those!!
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