September 22nd, 2005 - Grape juice
Last night, I made about 6 quarts of grape juice from free Concord grapes. Thanks to Moe, who dropped off one of the bunches, I used a steam juicer. She mentioned that she’d gotten one and it was SOOOO easy to use. She’s given me tons of grapes last year, too (but I was able to pick them since my knee wasn’t in bad shape). I spent two or three weekends picking, cleaning, and cooking. I got a lot of grape juice, but it was a messy, hard, hot job.
The steam juicer cost $60, which means my juice currently is running $6/quart. But, I plan to use it next year (hopefully I will be able to pick 3-4 times as many grapes) and I can use it for other fruit, such as my currants. I made currant juice in June or so, and would have made more except I was tired of the processing. I’ll probably turn the rest of the frozen currants into juice later this winter. AND, Eric loves fruit juice and will drink the grape as well as others. I’m already eying some of my frozen peaches and strawberries for juicing. I didn’t sweeten the grape juice this time so we can sweeten it to taste. I usually like less sweetness than does Eric. Plus, when Maggie’s old enough, we can give her unsweetened juices. (She’s old enough for most juices already, but I resist the idea of giving juice to kids. I think she should learn to drink milk and water. Juice will be a rare treat. I’m waiting until she’s at least one year old.)
Now to look at canning methods. I think I can use a pressure canner on my stove top, but those cost over $100. So I’m thinking of making something cheap like banana juice* and trying to can it. If it doesn’t work out, I’m only out the time, the electricity, and a couple bucks. And there are always more bananas to buy cheaply. *Eric mentioned making banana juice and I thought it was joking but I’d already read in the juicer’s manual that you could make banana juice. He tried it one and adored it. You can indeed make banana juice. And then I can make fruit rollups out of the left over pulp. MMMMMM