Grape Expectations

[sudsmaster]

Just got through juicing a few pounds of grapes from the back garden.

Used a Norpro Sauce Master hand crank press, with the grape spiral. Unlike a frustrating attempt with the Kitchenaid sauce attachment a few years back (which jammed with seeds and skins after only part of the harvest was processed), this proceded smoothly enough.

The end result is a pulpy pinkish white juice that would probably be great for jam, or filtered for wine. I got the cuttings for the arbor from a family that annually made wine from it. They used a proper grape press that yielded a more pinkish juice. But with the pulp it's simply a very delicious grape juice drink. I don't have the time right now to bother with making it into jam, or wine, so it's going in the fridge for a refreshing drink for the next few days.

There's another arbor in a shadier section of the yard that is taking longer to ripen... so will have more juice in a few weeks. I was prompted to harvest this batch because a visiting possum has started feasting on the grapes, which is a good indication that they are ripe enough.

 

[moparwash]

Good it turned out well or you would have 'The Wrath of Grapes'

 

[rp2813]

I wonder if a Champion juicer would do a better job of separating the seeds and skins from the juice.  Mine does a fabulous job of that when juicing apples.

 

[sudsmaster]

A friend told me a Jack LaLanne juicer works well. I have one, but I figured the slow hand crank method would be better.

Maybe I'll try the LaLanne juicer next time.

I did find that the Norpro tended to load up with seeds/skins in the spiral after about a half gallon of juice. I also found that running the seeds/skins through a second time freed up a fair amount of juice still caught in the auger. It was all easier than I expected. The main bother was picking all the grapes off the stems before juicing. I'm glad I did that, though, because at lease one spider made its presence known during the picking process, despite everything having been well rinsed before then.

 

[sudsmaster]

More harvest fun

Picked a bunch of green beans from the garden this afternoon for freezing. That involves blanching them in a big pot of boiling water first. I hate to heat up all that water and toss it down the drain, so after blanching the beans, added some more salt and a little olive oil, and cooked up some pasta (radiatori). Perfecto!