Grape Jelly

Christopher & Paige were oh so kind to give us some grapes.  (If I ever see another laundry basket full of grapes it will be too soon!)  So, I made grape jelly.  I have a niece & nephew who have won great ribbons making grape jelly for 4-H so I thought I must have some of the same genetic talent! 

I decided to photograph and blog about the good, the bad and the broken rules...  

Wash grapes and remove them from the clusters.

Ready to cook before juicing.

I boiled them in a little bit of water until the skins broke open.

I then put them in cheese cloth and squeezed out the juice.  I dislike this step as I usually end up burning my hands.  I juiced another day and used a Sauce Master as shown here:   

I did not cook the grapes first with this.  The only trouble I found with this method was that I got pulp.  So I just ran the "juice" from this through the cheesecloth (over a large bowl) to strain out the pulp.  I used a product SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin to gel it up. 

Cook the juice and SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin on the stove top.  Later adding sugar and cooking some more.  I just follow the recipe in the SURE-JELL package.  Then pour the hot liquid into jars and seal with canning lids and rings.

Here is the breaking rules part....  I cheated and just turned the jars upside down.  It is now 12 hours later and they all sealed.  However, USDA states they should have had a boiling water bath as that is a more safe perservation method.

We have sampled some and it is quite tasty.  We will likely share some as Christmas gifts and much of it we will enjoy ourselves!

Linked to:  Farm Photo Friday,  Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop, Rural Thursday Blog Hop

Harvest has begun

Harvest has finally begun for us.  Our barley is all in the bin as of today.  It looks like it will be another 5 days or so before anything else is ready to combine.  In the meantime, the guys are still trying to get that straw baled (from my last post!) and cut and bale some CRP for hay.  There are bales to haul home, corrals to repair, and so much more to get done. 

I thought I'd share a few photos from the week's activity.

Combining barley

Combine needed repair so as I helped I had to snap a few pictures! 

This one is my favorite from that little session.

Hubby waiting for the truck to get full.

This could be the next field harvested.  It is Hard Red Spring Wheat, but if the Canola gets ready first that is what we will do.  It is a waiting game and can be difficult to be patient sometimes.

 

Linked to:  Rural Thursday

lots of different toys for my boys!

Christopher acquired parts of an old fertilizer plant in a nearby town.  Today was the day to do much of the dismantling of this set up.

The intention here is to get the cat walk and trough augers removed so another crew can come in to haul our four hopper bins to the feedlot.  Also, a mixer will come to our place then perhaps a custom feed mixing enterprise could begin.

C. contracted the crane, its operator and a rigger guy to work with my guys.  We rented a boom lift.  It was a "toy" for my guys to run!  However, most of my men are not real keen on height so it was a bit unnerving for them.

Christopher is terribly afraid of heights.  He told someone today, "Anything higher than a five gallon bucket is too high for me.".  So he watched from below.

He did have to take the boom lift up.  As the day progressed so did his courage (at least a little bit!).

Brett was up on the top most of the day.  Mark was too.

I left before they got done.  All we need now is the crew to haul the bins.  Well, them and all of the work to set everything back up on the feedlot!  And a mixer from Plaza, parts for the roller mill from Canada, the building to be built, and...

Linking to:  Rural Thursday  and Farm Photo Friday