Canadian Thanksgiving
As soon as I told my mom (back in May) that I was moving back to Canada, she told me that I had to come home for Canadian Thanksgiving. Not for a big veggie-turkey dinner.... not for quality family time, but instead, to help her make grape juice. Hidden in their acre-sized back yard there are several rows of grapes that always ripen right around Thanksgiving.
My mom had picked about 6 boxes of grapes on Friday afternoon before I arrived, so as soon as the sun set on Sabbath evening, we started the whole process.
Step 1: Stem the clusters
Before we went to bed on Saturday night, our kitchen was cluttered with containers of all shape and size, heaping with grapes. (More grapes were to be picked and stemmed the following day.)
Step 2: Sunday morning, after washing the grapes, making sure there wasn't any dirt or bugs, we put the first batch into the special juicing pot. Three layers high, the pot steams the grapes from the bottom and the juice drips into the middle section, leaving the seeds and skins in the top section.
Step 3: When the grapes are all cooked and the middle part has filled with juice, the pot is drained via a spout in the side (see above), into hot jars waiting to be sealed.
Step 4: As the juice cools, the jars seal. They are then labeled and placed on shelves in the basement cellar for the winter. (Actually, the majority of the juice will be saved for if my brother and I ever get married! My parents supplied all the juice for my oldest brother's wedding, and are planning to do so for my other brother and I.)
In the midst of all the juice making, we still even managed to have a veggie-turkey dinner and some quality family time!
In the end, we picked about 250 lbs of grapes and got about 95.5 liters of juice!! It's good stuff!
My mom had picked about 6 boxes of grapes on Friday afternoon before I arrived, so as soon as the sun set on Sabbath evening, we started the whole process.
Step 1: Stem the clusters
Before we went to bed on Saturday night, our kitchen was cluttered with containers of all shape and size, heaping with grapes. (More grapes were to be picked and stemmed the following day.)
Step 2: Sunday morning, after washing the grapes, making sure there wasn't any dirt or bugs, we put the first batch into the special juicing pot. Three layers high, the pot steams the grapes from the bottom and the juice drips into the middle section, leaving the seeds and skins in the top section.
Step 3: When the grapes are all cooked and the middle part has filled with juice, the pot is drained via a spout in the side (see above), into hot jars waiting to be sealed.
Step 4: As the juice cools, the jars seal. They are then labeled and placed on shelves in the basement cellar for the winter. (Actually, the majority of the juice will be saved for if my brother and I ever get married! My parents supplied all the juice for my oldest brother's wedding, and are planning to do so for my other brother and I.)
In the midst of all the juice making, we still even managed to have a veggie-turkey dinner and some quality family time!
In the end, we picked about 250 lbs of grapes and got about 95.5 liters of juice!! It's good stuff!
Comments