I was given an opportunity to get some scuppernongs from a friend’s farm today.
I ended up leaving with about 4 gallons of those bronze beauties in a bucket and quite a few more in my belly! I’ve been working on some jelly most of the evening. It’s labor intensive, but well worth it. (Lots of washing, sorting, de-stemming, boiling, mashing, straining through a piece of cheesecloth, more boiling, jar prep/boiling, canning and boiling yet again!)
My Grandmother used to make muscadine jelly for me every year when I was a little fella. I’d go shake every vine in the woods behind my house and gather up a few gallons for her. She made it the old fashioned way...without adding pectin and it was sweeeeet, let me tell ya. She’s been gone for several years now and I sure have missed her and all that she did for our family.
So far, everything has gone pretty smooth with the prep and rendering. I had one little boil-over while I was trying to wash dishes as I went along and lost about half a jar’s worth.
Cold spoon test looked good, so I got it all jarred up and back in a hot water bath for a bit. I sure hope that this batch turns out to be close to what my Grandmother made...Fingers crossed. I’m sitting here in my kitchen listening to jars seal as I type this. I’ll let y’all know how it turned out when it’s time to break a jar open.
^^^Bout’ a gallon’s worth here^^^
Boiling the juice down prior to canning it.
Viola!
I ended up leaving with about 4 gallons of those bronze beauties in a bucket and quite a few more in my belly! I’ve been working on some jelly most of the evening. It’s labor intensive, but well worth it. (Lots of washing, sorting, de-stemming, boiling, mashing, straining through a piece of cheesecloth, more boiling, jar prep/boiling, canning and boiling yet again!)
My Grandmother used to make muscadine jelly for me every year when I was a little fella. I’d go shake every vine in the woods behind my house and gather up a few gallons for her. She made it the old fashioned way...without adding pectin and it was sweeeeet, let me tell ya. She’s been gone for several years now and I sure have missed her and all that she did for our family.
So far, everything has gone pretty smooth with the prep and rendering. I had one little boil-over while I was trying to wash dishes as I went along and lost about half a jar’s worth.
Cold spoon test looked good, so I got it all jarred up and back in a hot water bath for a bit. I sure hope that this batch turns out to be close to what my Grandmother made...Fingers crossed. I’m sitting here in my kitchen listening to jars seal as I type this. I’ll let y’all know how it turned out when it’s time to break a jar open.
^^^Bout’ a gallon’s worth here^^^
Boiling the juice down prior to canning it.
Viola!
