First, I washed the grapes.
Next, I put them in a big pot to boil.
Another shot of the pot....
Then, I realized that I was supposed to crush the grapes before I boiled them, but that would be difficult with so many grapes in the pot. So I took most of the grapes out, and used a potato masher to mash the grapes. That worked until the pot was about half full, then I started just squeezing the grapes.
Here are grapes after they have been mashed and squeezed. Notice how white and colorless the grape juice is.
Here are the grapes after they have been cooking for a while.
Here are the grapes boiling. Notice how the juice is starting to turn a nice shade of purple.
Here I am straining the grape juice from the rest of the grape remains. Of course, I had to come up with some clever system to do that.
Here is what the grape skins and seeds looked like as I drained out the juice. It also gives you a better view of the top part of the straining system. Especially, the towel which I used in place of cheesecloth.
Notice how purple the juice was by the time it had finished boiling.
Here is another shot of the juice straining and the fresh grape juice.
Finally, I poured the rest of the grapes into the strainer.
Now that the grape juice was made, it was time to make it into jelly. First, I measured out the grape juice.
Then, I needed to add sugar, lots and lots of sugar.
Now stir it all together.
And bring it a nice rolling boil. A
Here, I am pouring the hot jelly into containers.
A nice shot of the hot jelly.
More pouring.
Here, I am with what should have been the finished project.
But after more than 24 hours the jelly still hadn't set. So a few days later, I had to reboil the jelly mixture and add more pectin and sugar. The result wasn't the best jelly I have ever had, but it was edible. It really doesn't spread very well. In fact, now it is a little too set, but it does taste pretty good.
