Wild grapes grow abundantly along the Grand River's trails and the fruit is ripe now. RuthieJ posted a link to a recipe from Canadian Living magazine for wild grape jelly. I did not have liquid pectin, so had to modify the recipe a little. Powdered pectin is added to the mixture earlier in the process than liquid pectin. Here is the method I used.
3 pounds wild grapes
I did not take the grapes off the stems, but I trimmed the stems as much as possible.
Put in a large pot with
3 cups water
Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes until grapes are soft. I mashed them with a potato masher at this point.
Place cooked grapes in a colander lined with a double thickness of cheesecloth and drain overnight. I got 3-1/2 cups of grape juice and added 1/2 cup water to make 4 cups liquid.
Put 4 cups juice in a sauce pan and add 1 package of Certo powder. Bring to a boil and add 5 cups sugar. Bring to a boil again and boil hard for 1 minute. Skim off foam and place in sterilized jars with 2 piece lids. Process in a canner for 5 minutes if using 1 cup jars.
Makes 8 cups grape jelly that is really, really good!
4 comments:
I searched everywhere for a wild grape recipe with powdered pectin and finally found this. It's excellent!
thanks so much for the recipe, we did get the grapes from the walter bean trail, and made up 14 1/2 c. jars for us and christmas giving. i love the idea of making use of wild fruit. maybe we will pass each other on the trail someday.
Glad the recipe worked out for you. I have seen people collection grapes and grape leaves along the trails. I say hi to everyone I pass... :-)
Thanks for the powder pectin recipe! Hard to find liquid in my area. Grape leaves are great to collect too, for using in pickle fermenting!
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