Grape Juice Recipe. No Sugar Canning Method

Good morning everyone.  I forgot to add this recipe to my post the other day.  Here is how I made my grape juice and preserved it for future use.

Ingredients:

Grapes

Water

Equipment:

Glass canning jars and lids

Measuring equipment

Canning Equipment

Funnel

Prepare jars and lids like you would any other canning project.  Pour 1 cup of grapes in each quart jar, 1/2 a cup of grapes for each pint.  Add boiling water, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Process in boiling water canner for 15 minutes for quarts, 15 minutes also for pints.

This recipe is adapted from the Ball Blue Book for me because I wanted a no sugar juice.  You can add any amount of sugar you want if you like sweet juice.  I find this no sugar recipe very refreshing and tart.

I also added a few other berries that I had around, like my black nightshade berries.  The will add a little depth to the grape flavor.  Do your own experimenting.  Remember, the longer you let the grapes steep in the jar after canning, the more flavor you will have.

I may also can some wild grapes this way.  Wild grapes have a lot of tartness and a deeper flavor and I made wine with them last year that turned out better than my concord grape wine.

Another variation would be to use more grapes per jar.

First frost is coming! The harvest is on!

Last night I awoke at midnight and had to put blankets on my bed because I was shivering.  You know it's a cold night when the cats try to get under the covers with you.  So this morning feels like fall again and the air has that great crispiness and freshness.  I love the seasons here.  And having no heat in the upstairs of the house feels like I'm living in 1880 when this house was built!

So, I worked all day yesterday.  I pulled the turnips from their patch next to the workshop and scrubbed them clean.  I had to freeze them because they had some bug damage and wouldn't store well.  So they got chopped up, blanched and frozen.  If you haven't had mashed turnips, you must try them.  They taste like butter.  I can't guarantee the store bought ones will taste like much, but they are one of the easiest things to grow.  The turnips greens are my favorite.   

I harvested all my winter squashes too.  Sometimes if the skins aren't tough enough a little frost will damage the skin and then they'll start to rot.  I left my butternut squash on the vines well beyond their ripe stage so they will be good for the long winter.  It isn't good enough just being ripe, they have to be cured.  That means the skins turn thicker and tough so it makes it's own seal, you might say.  That keeps bacteria from decaying the squash.  I ended up with 11 butternut squash, which means 22 meals or 33 side dishes for meals.  I let my patty pan summer squash ripen into winter squash and I have 25 or 30 of those.  I also have a weird hybrid squash that "volunteered" in my garden and of course I just let it grow.  I thought, if nothing else they would be good fall decorations because they are white and egg shaped.  I was afraid they'd be tasteless like a gourd, so last night I cooked one.  It resembles a spagetti squash in texture but is just a bit lighter.  It has most of the flavor, just a little more bland.  But when I have no food, it will do in a pinch.  I never planted spagetti squash though.  That's the thing.  Isn't nature great?

With frost coming I had to pick all my orange peppers.  Peppers can be seeded and frozen whole.  You don't even have to blanch them.  Then the basil.  I removed the leaves and flowers and wrapped them in small bunches inside pieces of parchment and stuck them in freezer bags.  The rest of the herbs in the garden should survive a frost.  

I'm trying to use everything and not waste a thing, so as I was blanching the turnip greens and then the turnips, I lifted the vegetables out of the boiling water and used the water over and over.  All those vitamins should be kept!  So, I threw my basil stems in and simmered them awhile.  Then later, I blanched a few summer squash for the freezer.  A few other things and I ended up with some pretty passable vegetable broth that I can freeze or make soup with.  Soup freezes really well too.

So for the next few days, I'll be working on weening myself off the "standard american diet" foods that I'm eating now, so that my new diet isn't so shocking.  I'll let you know how that's working out.

Thanks for reading!

Two weeks to go until I buy no more food... for a year!

As my counter top gets filled with jars full of canned grape juice and my freezer starts to fill up with all sorts of food, I am feeling this immense sensation of pride, satisfaction, safety and happiness.  It's hard to explain the effect that this amount of food freedom has on one's bliss.  I am by no means ready for the winter, not having harvested nearly enough to sustain me all winter, but it is within reach.  I still have time to harvest all the squash in the garden, the greens, the wild stuff.  There is also the food I'm leaving to overwinter in the fall garden and the greens I'm going to grow on my counter in the dead of winter.  I want this to be a testament to the fact that anyone can do this.  I am the laziest gardener I know, and am busy doing lots of other things, yet I will be able to grow enough healthy food for one person for a year. (Hopefully).  

This week has been the best harvest and prep week so far.  I was having issues with my concord grapes ripening this year.  The one thing I thought was a sure thing was the grapes.  Of course, there is no guarantee with anything you grow.  So, I waited as long as I could and let the grapes sit on the vines, tasting them every day with just with a little less disappointment each time.  Then, 4 days ago, I went out and noticed lots of grape skins on the leaves and what looked like someone had eaten the inside of the grape and spit the skins out.  I can only imagine what critter was out there doing this, so I decided, ripe or not, these grapes were going to be grape juice soon or I'd lose them all.

47 quarts and 7 pints later, I have my grape juice.  I ended up with about 2 bushels of grapes off the vines.  Not super sweet, more tart, but the juice tasted very refreshing anyway.  And there is nothing that smells as good as concord grape juice from scratch.  My mom used to make this recipe from our grape vines at home.  We had grape vines growing up through apple trees on the side of the property where I grew up.  It was like a secret garden and we used to actually swing on the vines.  There was one shaped like a fainting couch sort of and it would swing.  Great fun.  Plus, apples to throw at my brother and his friends or, you know, make cider.  (I won't tell you what we mixed with the mashed up apples when we flung them at my brother but it had something to do with neighborhood dogs.)  I hope you're not reading this Brett.

So, today has been the first day that it's felt like fall.  The temperature is only in the 50's and I am all over the garden figuring out which thing to harvest first just in case we get a frost tonight.  I still have peppers and tomatoes so I might start with them.  I already blanched a whole batch of turnips and greens and put them in the freezer this morning.  So, it's only noon now and I have so much to do.  So I will resume blogging tomorrow.

October First

Well, it has been a long time, hasn't it?  I think I went into hibernation for awhile after closing my store and going into my new endeavor at Filomena's in Medina, and then the craft shows have kept me busy all during the end of summer.  So much has happened.  

But I will get to that eventually.  Today is October first.  The smell in the air is of leaves and the sky is an extra shade of beautiful.  And October first means that I have exactly one month to go in prepping for my year of eating nothing but what I grow in the garden.  

This morning I blanched some broccoli for the freezer.  I've been freezing, drying, and canning everything in sight to be ready for this coming year.
Oops, I got interrupted, again.

How To Make Calendula & Comfrey Infused Oil

"Let It Be" -- Eating Only What I Grow Installment August 1st 2017

Well, it's the first day of not having the huge store in Swormville.  I moved all my stuff out of the shop yesterday and I'm feeling sluggish today to say the least.  Most of the stuff is in storage waiting for me to set up at the new smaller store in which I will have less stress and more free time.  I am looking forward to this. 

This is the reason for such a huge lapse between blogs.  I was so busy with the store closing sale and then the looming move, it was difficult to even think, say nothing about gardening and all the other things that go along with it. 

So today, for the first time in a very long time, I am a free woman.  I have no place I absolutely have to be today.  So, I have plopped myself down under the oak tree in the yard with Pickles the cat and I am giving myself time to write.  And be.  Mike is in the house vacuuming, so there is no peace like the oak tree.  Pickles is rolling around on his back purring, trying to get my undivided attention.  This is a fun thing to watch.  Such a silly. 

So, needless to say, my blog and my gardens have been neglected.  The cucumbers need to be picked.  The tansy is falling all over the sweet annie and my broccoli plants giving them too much shade.  There are still herbs to be planted.  The calendula has flowered so much that many of the flowers have gone to seed and I need to pick them all off so I keep getting flowers all season.  Not really a big deal, as they flowered until after frost last year.  I was busy with the store last year, so nothing even got picked, I don't think. 

There are a few things in the garden that seem to have been waiting for me to return from being too busy.  The zucchini, yellow squash and my favorite patty pans haven't even begun to give me the abundant crop they usually do.  I've only had a few.  The cucumbers have been giving me one to two a day because they knew I needed to eat a few a day to stay healthy during this period of stress.  I noticed two berries on the black berry plants that were ripe, so it seems they will be just getting around to  be ripe just in time for me to freeze them for the winter.   No tomatoes yet.  No beans yet.  They have all been patiently waiting for me.

I really feel this amazing connection to the earth, the animals, the seasons, the plants.  In all my endeavors in my life, I feel very strongly that this one thing is the very reason things always work out for me.  Of course I work really hard at the things I do, but things just seem to come into place at the very moment I need them.  I looked for two months to find a new shop.  Nothing was charming enough or inexpensive enough to put it in place for me.  So I gave it up and let it go.  A couple days later my friend let me know she had taken over a shop and had a big room for me to rent.  Exactly the situation I needed at that time. 

I also have the whole gratitude thing.  I don't think we give gratitude enough attention.  If we are grateful of the things that happen even though they may not seem great at the time, things will work out for the best.  I see people doing things out of spite, and hate and jealousy and they get back only what they put out.  Things don't work out for people when they work out of a bad place in their heart.

So, my gardens and my animals have been waiting for me to have time for them.  My connection with nature allows me freedom to work things out.  Connection has many facets.  Respect is a big one.  Letting nature be nature.  Trying to control it with herbicides, pesticides and all sorts of poisons or machines is only counter -productive.  Nature always wins.  If we let a few weeds grow where nature thinks they should grow, we may find amazing things.  Like an abundance of bees or butterflies that have been dropping in population.  This of course is an example that could be so many different things. 

Let things be.  Let yourself just be.  Stop trying to control everything in life.  It doesn't work.  Nature always wins.  Be grateful for it.

My Messy, Natural Straw Bale Garden Space

Eating Only What I Grow For A Year... #4 Apple Cider Vinegar

Well, I changed my mind...  Don't worry.  I'm still doing my 365 days, but I changed my mind about the start date.  I figured that I'd be done just about at the end of October with my prep, so why waste time waiting for it.  I'll start my 365 on November 1st instead of January 1st.  

Some of my inspiration for this journey is the settlers and pilgrims and people who lived here 100 years ago and had to plan every meal for their winters here.  I'm sure it was even more challenging for them because some people didn't have close neighbors to barter with and rely on for losses of crops or unforeseen circumstances.  Some of the history I've read, it was pretty scary for them because there were children to take care of.  I don't have to worry about other mouths to feed.  It will only be mine.  My boyfriend Mike doesn't have any desire to go through this with me, so I'll need a lot less food...  

Speaking of a lot less food.  I've gone on little spurts of eating only raw, fresh, plant based food before, and I noticed a peculiar thing.  I didn't need as much food.  I feel that when your body is nourished and has all the vitamins, minerals, and hydration it needs, you feel satisfied and don't need huge meals.  Most of us go around being hungry all the time because our bodies are under nourished.  This is caused by just eating the wrong things all together or, even worse, the food we think is healthy is totally lacking most of it's nutrients because it's grown in poor soil with toxic chemicals and then it sits on a shelf or in a refrigerator for who knows how long.  

That is why I really think I will have the worst time at the beginning.  Once my body gets acclimated to being nourished properly, I'll ease into this pretty easily.  At least that is what I'm thinking.  I'll be prepping beforehand though to keep myself detoxed from all the ice cream I love to eat in the summer.  

As my vegetables are growing and getting ready to harvest, I'm making mental notes of the things I'll be canning together or preserving so I can make my meals easier.  One of the things I am looking forward to is something my sister Julia started making probably 20 years ago now, and I've made it and loved it ever since.  Very simple.  Chopped tomatoes, zucchini and onion and sauteed in a pan.  I especially love this as a sauce for pasta, but I won't have any pasta, so I'll eat it as is.  I can can this stuff, or I can freeze it already cooked.  I can just heat it up.  Easy.

Another things I've been thinking about is getting used to eating non-conventional breakfast foods.  I won't have any bread of any kind, so I need to get used to eating vegetable for breakfast.  I really love steamed mustard greens for breakfast though.  Smoothies are another option for breakfast but I won't have bananas, coconut oil or chia seeds or other things I normally use in my green drinks.  I will have blackberries hopefully and possibly kefir if I can barter for milk.

I'm also going to barter first thing for milk so I can make butter.  I have a few places in mind that I can get raw milk and cream.  I just hope they'll take what I barter instead of money.

Yesterday I made homemade apple cider vinegar with apples that were falling off my tree.  I didn't want the apples to go to waste because I may not have that many so I chopped them all up and put them in jars of water.  Normally you add sugar to get the fermentation started faster, but in my 365 days, I won't have sugar.  It will ferment, it just may take 6 to 8 weeks instead of 4.  I checked them this morning and they are bubbling already, so it won't take long.  Vinegar will be useful to preserve some of my food and for getting some of the nutrition I'll need for the winter.  Anything fermented has great amounts of vitamin B and other great stuff.

Until next time.