How To Extract Juice From Grapes

We grow our own grapes for jelly making here in our little Oklahoma garden. We have six grapevines that we bought from Lowes and they have produced nicely for several years. This will be my second year to make jelly.

First wash the grapes thoroughly.

The easiest way to extract the juice from your homegrown grapes is to first place the grapes in a food processor. Pulse the processor as many times as necessary to gently crush the grapes. Don't overdo it.

Now pour the grapes into a pot large enough to hold the grapes. Place pot on top of stove on low to medium heat. Heat the grapes until they begin to boil then reduce heat to simmering.

With a large spoon begin to press the grapes as they simmer. Simmering causes the grapes to release even more juice. Keep pressing until you see plenty of juice forming in the pot.

Now, place a small hand held strainer over a large glass measuring cup. Using a measuring cup will help you keep track of how much juice you're getting. Spoon some of the simmering grapes into the strainer (it's hot!) and begin to press with the spoon so that the juice is running through the strainer into the measuring cup. Get as much juice as possible and return those grape skins to the pot. Mix grape skins back into the pot with the rest of the grapes, reheat and repeat the straining until all juice is extracted.

Voila'!!!

Grape skins are all that's left now.

This Year's Grape Crop

Barring the birds and other pests, it looks like this year we're going to have another pretty good crop of grapes. More homemade grape jelly for us! I just picked my first round yesterday. I brought them in and enlisted my daughter's help to remove all the bad grapes and stems. I washed them off in a large strainer and let them sit overnight.

Tonight, I washed the grapes again and have mashed all the juice out which I will freeze until all the rest of the grapes decide to ripen.

Check back in a couple of days for my how to's on making homemade grape jelly.