This Year's Bumper Crops Were Grass and Grapes! Wild Grape Jelly

The first summer we were in our house, I realized that our neighborhood is absolutely loaded with wild grape vines. That year I decided to make wild grape jelly for the first time and it was a hit! For the next couple of years, I kept an eye out, but there was never quite as much fruit... until this year.  And so, we have a brand new batch of jelly!

Wild Grape Jelly

16 cups of destemmed wild grapes (or concord grapes)

water

7 cups of sugar (! crazy, right?)

1 package of Certo pectin (regular, NOT low sugar)

Put your destemmed grapes into a large pot and fill with water up to the top of the grapes.   Boil for 45 minutes to extract the juice from the fruit, stirring frequently.

Strain the juice from the pulp and compost the pulp.

Measure out exactly 5 cups of juice and return it to the (rinsed out) pot on the stove.  I had about 1 quart extra juice at this point, so I froze it in a mason jar to be used later.

Add the sugar to the juice in the pot and bring to a rolling boil.  Add the Pectin, stirring constantly, for exactly 1 minute.   Ladel your jelly into pint sized mason jars and cap tightly.  I ended up with 4 pints of jelly. 

Either freeze your jelly (if you have the space) or process your mason jars in a waterbath for 15 minutes.  Remove from the bath and let them cool and seal themselves on the counter.

Enjoy!