Our house is surrounded by wild concord grape vines which form a blind and the neighborhood kind of disappears. It reminds my of my childhood on Cape Cod hanging out with friends in the trees with the smell of ripe grapes in the air, filling up on the fresh grapes and spitting seeds.

Our yard is not that sunny so the grapes rarely are pickable but do make cutting the lawn tricky, you try walking on green marble like grapes that have fallen. I have made stuffed grape leaves with some of the young leaves and this year a vine that snaked its way thorough the tree limbs into the front yard grabbed enough sun to ripen. So I grabbed my pruner on an extension pole and snipped what I could reach, must have been a comical scene to watch not know what I was doing.

I proudly ate some that night while watching the news but the skins were a little on the bitter side so using my wife face as a guide I decided to and try and make some jam. I reviewed a few recipes for ideas but they all had so much sugar so I decided to cut that amount down by a good half. I did not use pectin so it was basically grapes, chopped skin and sugar.

It as fairly easy although time consuming and a little PIA getting the seeds out.

First squeeze the grape out of the skins forming two piles finely chop the skins and place in saucepan, cut the grape in halve and remove the seeds. That part was time consuming and the PIA so much so that Lyn came over and helped. When completed into the sauce pan with the sugar. To me the “jam expert” making this one and only time it appeared that there was enough liquid so I did not add any water. then I brought to a boil while mashing with a potato masher then simmered mashing and stirring until it got to what I thought looked like a good consistency about 20-25 minutes. Many seed that were in the mixture floated to the top and were easily picked out. Note: the seeds are easily swallowed and really don’t need to bbe taken out but for a jelly or jam I suggest they are.

Then into canning jars and placed in the canning pot of boiling water for a 10 minute bath which I had dug off a shelf in the basement, dusted off and rinsed. Turned off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes then on top towel on counter to cool. I had read that it should be aloud to set for 48 hours so after they popped and sealed I placed to the side. This morning I mad toast and had my first taste. Not bad, not too sweet and not to thick. I would prefer it a little thicker but and not going to empty the jars and boil down again, I’ve had enough.

Thinking about using some a for basting/glazing grilled chicken maybe a piece of salmon.

Seeing that I am a google/android user it is always listening to me making suggestions etc., basically invading my privacy, and this morning in my news feed was a link to Martha Stewart’s article on concord grapes.