Molly Mormon can KEEP her Pedestal

Despite any pre-conceived notions you may or may not have about me, let's get one thing perfectly clear: I am less domestic than most people think. (A few know me well enough to know better!!) For some strange reason, there are those that seem to think I'm really crafty, bake a lot, and excel at all manner of domestic arts.

This is SO not true.

I apparently have just one really amazing talent, and that is to be able to pull the wool over others' eyes!! I did not grow up doing these kinds of things, nor did I watch my mother do them much. Regarding the kitchen, well, my mom didn't want me in the kitchen too much, because I never left it as clean as she wanted it. We had two different versions of "clean up after yourself". I thought rinsing and stacking the dishes & pans I used was fine. Mom felt I should wash, dry and put them away. Kind of the "leave-no-trace" approach. Crafts were unheard-of in my home, unless they were of the needlework variety. Since I'm not a fan of creating needlework (but really love OTHERS' creations!!), I never went far with that. Someday I'll post about how I got started painting.

So whenever I actually DO something remotely domesticated, it shocks me so much, I tell people about it, in a "can you BELIEVE it???" attitude. People mistakenly think, "Oh, so that's what she did TODAY. She must do this kind of stuff constantly."

NOT.

I'm not Molly Mormon, and she doesn't need to worry about me usurping her pedestal any time soon. Having said that, here's what I did -- and please don't think I run around doing this stuff all the time!!

One thing we inherited here at the Haven when we moved in, is our grapes. Since we haven't used them like we should, we actually considered ripping them out, but because they weren't encroaching on anything, and we had other stuff to do, we left them alone. They're seeded, so they're not the greatest for eating, but they're wonderful for juicing. Not having a juicer, I never did much with that...... until now.

Last summer, I bought a juicer. (It was on sale, what can I say?) It's not one of those mash-it-up, upscale blender things. This is a steam juicer. It looks like this:

Ok, well it has a lid, too. The bottom section holds the boiling water. The top section is a perforated piece that holds the fruit. As the steam rises through the open cone of the middle section, the grapes release their juice, and the juice drains out of the top, into the middle section. These are the same grapes as the first photo, I didn't add or take any out, but this is after they've steamed a while. The tube coming out the side siphons off the juice. There's also a clamp on the tube that you can't really see... it allows changing jars without the juice running all over. After filling the jars you process them in your canner. (Although as hot as that juice is, I don't think you really need to process - the jars would seal fine on their own. Don't tell the USDA I said that.) I am a bit of a rebel in the canner department, because I use a steam canner -- not a steam pressure canner, just a steam canner. This is not an "approved" method, so don't tell the USDA about this either!!

These are the three full quarts I got as they finished processing. There was most of a 4th quart that I didn't process, because it was going into grape jelly. If you're really going for quantity, you can get even more juice by stirring and pushing on the grapes, but since I was going for a reallly clear juice, I didn't do that, and therefore had less juice overall.

These pictures are from my first juicing session. Since then I've done another batch, made jelly with some of the juice from this first batch, Todd's parents have picked grapes for their own juice, and there's still more grapes out in the yard, but I don't think there's enough left for yet another batch. Why are we picking so late in the year? Well, Peggy (Todd's mom) has been juicing for years, and she tells me that if you wait to pick until after the first freeze, the grapes can set their sugar. I'm all for it. (And as a non-domestic, city kid -- I didn't know that about grapes!)