Grapes and more grapes

A friend of mine has a neighbor who was willing for us to pick his grapes, if we were willing to give him some jelly. So, Saturday afternoon, we went to Greeley and picked grapes. We had never picked grapes built over a trellis like this before. There was a glider underneath. It was somewhat difficult to pick the grapes from underneath. Rowen and Jeffrey took turns picking on top of the trellis standing on a 6 foot ladder.



Picking above one's head is hazardous to the eyes. We forgot to bring our goggles!

It was a cozy place to pick. We sure appreciate Leroy letting us do it.

We actually picked more grapes than this, but we gave some to Rowen's sister, so she could make jelly too. The grapes we ended up with weighed 40 pounds!

Here you can see how the trellis and glider were situated. Rowen is, of course, taking the picture, as he usually is.

On Labor Day, some of us spent the day in the kitchen making the grapes into jelly. We wore our mp3 players to help pass the time away as we worked. My faithful assistants, Jason and Emily, washed and de-stemmed all the grapes.

I cooked them and made the jelly. Emily did the sieving. I don't re-strain the juice through cheesecloth to make the clear jelly, because I like the pulp--more nutrition in the jelly. Since you have to use so much sugar to make it, I want there to be a redeeming factor. (Just my personal preference. I know it would never win the prize at the fair.)

I think this was the last batch of cleaned grapes. No wonder she looks so happy! It was a long day!

The 40 pints and 5 half-pints of jelly when the day was done.