The Sweetest Gift

This is what you do when a friend gives you a lovely gallon of fresh picked grapes.

This was my first time at making grape jelly, and now I know what all the fuss is about. This grape jelly taste nothing like what you would buy in the store. This grape jelly taste like a grape. It has a fresh quality to it with just a hint of tartness in the background. It’s sweet alright that’s for sure, with 13 cups of sugar in it, it ought to be.

I know I know, everybody is cutting out white sugar because it has apparently become the new poison.

Well, not me. Moderation is what I say, because now that I’ve tasted this grape jelly, I don’t want to imagine life without it and I can’t wait to smear it all over a warm buttery biscuit or a slice of warm homemade honey wheat bread. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I used my food mill to juice the grapes, but for some reason my food mill just would not cooperate with these grapes. By the time I decided to give up my kitchen looked like a crime scene. I had grape juice all over me, all over the counters, all over the floor, all over everything.

Mother said those should be the pictures I post because it would make for a good laugh. Shouldn’t be too hard to do, because more often than not I’m making some kind of mess in the kitchen. 🙂

So this is what I did.

Grape Jelly

Rinse 1 gallon of grapes and remove stems
Put grapes in a heavy bottom pot with 1 cup of water
Smash grapes with a potato masher (while thinking about the classic I Love Lucy episode of her stomping grapes)
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes while continuing to crush and stir the grapes – You will need 8 cups of juice
Strain the juice through a fine colander then place the juice in a cool spot over night
Get your jars and lids ready (washing and sterilizing them)
Strain the juice through a double cheese cloth or you could use a clean sheet or t-shirt you’ve cut up into dish towels like I did. (now I have a lovely tie dye dish towel that will always be tie dye, so keep that in mind)
Pour the grape juice back into the heavy bottomed pot and whisk in 2 boxes of fruit pectin
Bring mixture to a full boil
Whisk in 13 cups of sugar
Bring mixture back to a boil and boil for one minute (set a timer for this – 1 minute is important)
Skim the foam top off of the jelly
Carefully ladle the extremely hot mixture into your jars
Wipe clean the rims of the jars, put lids and bands on and water bath for 5 minutes

This netted me 16 (8 ounce) jars of jelly.

I highly recommend setting one jar aside for immediate consumption.

As a matter of fact I highly recommend a celebratory peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of ice cold fresh milk when your done.

Well, speaking of the sweetest gift…

The only thing that could’ve made this jelly better is my beautiful granddaughter making it with me. My punkin butt loves her some purple gravy.

Meet my punkin and peanut. Now that really is the sweetest gift!

Thank you to our friend for gifting us the lovely grapes, they will keep on giving all through the winter.

Till next time,

Lori

Homestead Happenings

July has been busier than a humming-bird on crack. I can’t believe the month is about over already. We’ve been very busy on our little homestead with gardening, feeding, canning, cleaning, building, clearing and all the other ings it takes to have a homestead.

The gardens are coming in strong. The cucumbers have been a good harvest too. I’ve put up 24 pints of bread and butter pickles.

We finished up with the spring green beans and ended up with six gallons in the freezer. The Z Man has planted more green beans for me to can, but we aren’t sure how well they are going to do. Between the rabbits and the heat, they aren’t looking too great.

The sweet potatoes and the butternut squash are looking great! Cant wait for those.

The pigs are growing and the chickens are doing fine, but none of us like this heat.

Our tomatoes are finally coming in and I canned 8 quarts of tomato juice last weekend. Perfect timing too as this week I opened my last jar from last years crop.

This weekend I’ll be canning salsa.

The Z Man’s pumpkins are really amazing this year! Is it bad that I am ready for fall, football and pumpkin everything?

It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!!!

We’ve had some really strong storms lately, but some don’t seem to mind….

It’s true, rain is a good thing…. it keeps everything growing and green.

We are so blessed… Thank you God for loving us.

And thank you to the Z Man for all of his beautiful photography.

I hope y’all are having a wonderful summer.

Till next time,

Lori

Friday’s Frugal Five

Last week I hit a deer and the insurance company totaled my car. While the damage wasn’t extensive, the repair cost exceeded the value of the car, well the value of the car to them (not me).

We are buying the car back and the Z Man will make the repairs and we’ll bank the balance of the pay off. How is this frugal?

Not using the money from the insurance company to buy a new (to me) car.
Buying the car back from the insurance company because we have taken care of the car and know it’s a good car and has more life left in it.
The Z Man will find the replacement parts at a salvage yard, saving a lot of money instead of buying new parts.
I will get a rental car (provided by the insurance company) to drive for 10 days while the Z Man fixes my car, instead of driving our truck that doesn’t get the best gas mileage.
Realizing how fortunate I am to have a husband that is more frugal than I am and is also a Mr. Fix It.
Also realizing that I am much more fortunate than the deer. 😦
Dinners cooked at home, laundry dried on the clothes line, money in the pickle jar and still breathing fresh air (quit smoking).

The things I like about my car are:

It’s paid for
It gets great gas mileage
It’s paid for
Insurance is reasonable on it
It’s paid for
Personal property taxes are low on it
And, it’s paid for

I really don’t want a car payment ever again. A car for me (now) is to get from point A to point B safely and as economically as possible.

What about you, what frugal fun have you had this week?

Till next time,

Lori

Homestead Happenings

It’s been a minute since I’ve last posted. We’ve just been so busy with our jobs and with work around our little homestead.

Our two little pigs have adjusted well to their new lifestyle. These two seem much more settled than the last generation of bacon and bar-b-q.

The gardens were slow getting started because we’ve had a bit of a cooler spring, but now they are starting to take off. We are getting a steady supply of snow peas, green beans, zucchini and squash. The cucumbers aren’t doing so great this year.

I told you about the little orchard the Z Man put in for us. All the trees seem to be doing good and are showing small signs of new growth.

I’ve finally figured out how to make (good) yogurt with the right consistency from raw milk. Usually raw milk yogurt produces a thinner consistency yogurt, but the trick is to strain 3/4 of the yogurt as you would to make a thick greek style yogurt then whisk the last 1/4 of the thinner yogurt in to the thick yogurt and it produces the perfect creamy yogurt texture.

The chickens are happy and blessing us with fresh eggs daily.

I made and bottled my first batch of kombucha. I even got the Z Man to try it and he liked it, once he got past the fear of it maybe poisoning him. But, I have a confession, as much as I want to get into the kombucha thing, I’m just not into it, and I’m ok with that decision. It was fun to try it, but it’s not something I’ll continue to do.

I’ve been washing and organizing my mason jars getting ready for the canning season. I expect I’ll be canning green beans next week.

I made my first meat purchase from Polyface Farms of a chicken larder (fifteen whole chickens). The best way to describe the taste of these chickens is to say they just taste more chickeny. They are so good, and lean, not bloated with all the salt water that store bought chickens are loaded with. I’m fortunate that Polyface delivers to my area on a monthly basis. The Z Man thought I was a bit crazy when I asked him to go with me to meet a van in an ally behind the co-op to buy chicken, but let’s face it it’s pretty common for him to think I’m crazy anyway, so… you know just another day in our life. I will continue to buy from Polyface Farms, because the meat just taste so much better, it’s worth the little extra cost to us.

On a sad note, our old yellow lab “Charlie” passed away. He lived a good life, but now he is in heaven chewing the arms off sofas and steeling food from the tables. RIP Charlie.

Two days after Charlie passed, I found a little kitten in bushes outside my office window. I called around, but no one in the area claimed her, so off to the vet we went. She weighed only 1lb. I had always said I would never get another cat because I would never find another one that was like my beloved Maggie who passed about 10 years ago. Maggie was a wonderful cat that would greet you at the door with kisses then turn around and chase dogs out of the yard. This little kitten is just like Maggie. Loving and feisty. Some people say it was a sign to find this kitten right after Charlie passed. I don’t know about that, but I do know that she has given us lots of smiles since bringing her home.

Meet Roxy Y’all.

(The Z Man named her, and she has completely turned into daddy’s girl, she just L-O-V-E-S her daddy! I mean I just saved her life and all, that’s all, no big deal)