Continuing the Grape Processing on a Rainy day
It's raining pretty hard today for only the second day after 80 days of no rain. Sounds like the perfect time to proceess some grapes.
36 pounds of grapes from this harvest plus the 10 pounds from earlier gives about 50 pounds of grapes from the 2 Somerset grape vines this year. This is far better than last year and today I only was able to get through 17.5 pounds processed today but that is partly due to lack of gallon jugs for freezing the juice.
For a little while I had a helper, but his attention span is a little limited given he is almost 4. He does well, but the little energy bugs seem to get under his skin, like scarabs, and he has to go do something to burn it off. We started the processing at 2:15pm.
By 2:50pm I had finished filling the Tupperware which had used about half the bucket of grapes. My helper had lost interest about half way through the run. I poured the juice through a strainer from the green Tupperware to a larger orange Tupperware. This amounted to approximately a gallon of juice and was covered and left on the counter while I continued the processing.
At 3:35pm I finished the 17.5 pounds of grapes and had another bowl of juice. 1 hour and 20 minutes to process the grapes is a pretty solid time for the processing and I am pretty happy with it.
The large orange bowl in the sink has the first run in it and this is setting up for the straining of the second run.
The strainer is metal so has smaller holes than the plastic strainers but is still large enough to let most of the useful part through. I just don't want the stems, skins, and bugs in the juice. (Though some may argue the bug protein may add to it... )
Not much is left in the strainer but it is still enough to warrant the straining.
My entire reasoning for processing my grapes is to remove the skins, stems, and bugs that might impart an off taste to the wine. I have to save up the juice until I have enough to make a batch of wine, which will be at least 5 gallons, of which I have 3 gallons now. The other 18 pounds of grapes will make up the last 2 gallons I need. Though I am probably going to end up mixing the grapes with a bunch of berries I have for wines, but at least I will have gallon jugs of grape juice to play with.
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Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce
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What an awsome post wish I could grow grapes successfully. Your little helper is a sweetie. Thanks for sharing.
The biggest thing for me was finding a variety of grape that was best suited to our climate. Northern tier capable strains will generally do well north of 45 deg latitude but local micro climate can play a major part in proper selection as well.
50# of grapes! That's excellent. We've made some grape juice and jelly from wild grapes, but are looking forward to growing our own. Nice photos of the whole process!
I would love to find wild grapes on this side of Washington. I have been in a good number of the local forests and haven't found any, but I know they exist. The west side has tons of them, the wet side of the mountains.
I'd bet that mixmaster machine makes it a lot easier and faster to process the grapes! I didn't realize that there was an attachment like that for those machines. Could you use that attachment for tomatoes?
OMG!!!
http://www.kitchenaid.com/shop/countertop-appliances-1/stand-mixer-attachments-3/102020154/#back
We picked up attachment package at some point that had the Food grinder, Fruit & Vegetable Strainer Parts, and Sausage Stuffer parts. My wife grew up being the "stuffer" of the cut up tomatoes into the same sort of setup. I just used it last week with cherry tomatoes for the spaghetti sauce, right into the pot. I use it for anything that is mush-able.
Kitchenaid is just one of the brands that has many attachments, it's just the one we have.
I definitely have to check out that link! Thanks!
Very nice @flemingfarm ...Bless
thank for your great post.
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I like grapes. Thanks or sharing .
Please follow and upvote me.
Wow that is quite the opperation you have there! I have just bought my first Grape vine for my birthday. I hope I get a nice yield like yours! 😍👌