Grape harvest

[Henwoman]

I have so many bunches of ripened grapes - white ones - that I will never just eat them all. Any suggestions apart from wine making please?

[diggernotdreamer]

One year I had loads of grapes and I used my apple press and squeezed them into juice, did the same as with the apples, put them in a bucket and smashed them up with a blade thing on an electric drill, they are difficult to press unless they are squished first. You can freeze the juice in plastic bottles or pasteurise them in glass ones, the pasteurised juice is particularly nice.

[Odsox]

If they are seedless ones you could dry them for sultanas.
That's what I'm hoping to do next year, my vine was only planted last winter so no fruit yet.
I eat an awful lot of home made cake and buns, so will be very handy .... if it works.

[demi]

I'v made delicious red grape jam. Going to make more this year. I'd imagine white grapes would make similarly good jam too.
I make all my jams with 60% sugar to fruit. If they are seedless grapes you should add an apple or some plums or something to increase the pectin content. The grapes i used had seeds which were a footer to get out, and i didn't get them all out so there was some odd seeds in the jam which were quite hard on your teeth if you bit one. This year im going to liquidize the grapes then put them through a sieve to get the seeds out, and add an apple for pectin.

[JuzaMum]

Last year my neighbour let me have the grapes from her vine which I made into grape jelly. I was hoping to get them again this year but it seems to be a poor harvest this time . I processed them by first washing then I put about 1cm of water in the bottom of huge pan, put it on the heat and adding the grapes as I removed them from the stalks. As it takes time to destalk them some had cooked down as I added more. Once they were all in I heated them for a short while then put the whole lot through and jelly bag. This resulted in a very nice juice which I could happily of drank all of. I then added sugar and pectin and cooked into jelly. I would recommend this method as a easy way to make juice if you don't have juicer.

JuzaMum

[Henwoman]

Thanks, you lot! I shall endeavour to do some grape jelly and some grape juice I think.

[okra]

You could try making grape must roll. Sucuk or soutzoukos is a traditional Cypriot sweet which has been made in villages for generations.

The process is in two parts. Firstly, the making of the grape jelly. And secondly, the dipping of shelled walnuts or almonds, which have been threaded through a string to about one metre after being left in water to soften, into the jelly mixture.

The grape must is made by gently heating pressed grape juice in a large cauldron whilst adding slaked lime or calcium hydroxide. The addition of the lime acts to release any impurities in the must to the surface where they can be skimmed off. An alternative, if you cannot locate lime, is the addition of lager which has the same affect. Once cleansed, the must is left to cool and flour is added whilst gently heating and continually stirring. The mixture will gradually thicken and is ready for dipping the stringed nuts into the mixture.

The strings are left to dry and the process is repeated for the next 3-4 days, dipping in the must and allowing to dry or until the thickness desired is obtained.

The strings are hung to dry for a further 4 days in an airy but insect free environment, after which the grape must roll is ready to slice and eat.

[marshlander]

I like these grape, ricotta and honey tarts.

http://australian.food.com/recipe/grape ... rts-327697

[Mustardseedmama]

Stem some of them, wash, dry, and freeze on trays. When frozen hard scoop them into freezer bags. They are lovely in frozen fruit salads or just any time you want a cold, nutritious snack.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Do you still have the travelling distilleries up your way? You could ferment them and get them turned into grape spirit. Much less in the way of volume, keeps forever and makes a marvellous base for aperitifs.