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To: little jeremiah

I have a steamer/juicer that I use for cooking down grapes for juice. I love it!

If I can get to the wild Elderberries before the birds do this season, I’ll try that.

They seem to ripen in stages, so that may help. :)


112 posted on 01/30/2022 4:25:48 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Elderberries are so tiny that harvesting locally is challenging. DH got me a whole large bucket but once I took them off the stems and twigs, I had almost nothing, and many were not ripe. Actually made a sort of juice from them but it was pale-ish and just not the potent stuff when I use a lot of ripened dried once. Maybe if you made juice from them bit by bit and froze until you had enough to make a decent batch of syrup?

I used to have a couple of U pick places for concord grapes (HUGE YUM!) and they are so healthy, and made grape juice, often 30 qts. Then the places closed up (whine and cry) and sold the juicer to someone younger with more energy.

I also started this method, with the last batch of grapes - wash, stem, stuff in quart jars, pour in very light hot syrup, put in water bath canner for 20 minutes. When I wanted juice, I poured out the contents of one jar into the blender and pulsed it until all blended up but seeds were intact. Strained out, and ooooh lala - fantastic delicious thick juice! all the skins in there. I actually have a few pathetic concord grape vines but they are in horrid soil and all they manage to do is survive, poor things. It’s up to DH if he wants to get them into better soil. And then, there are foxes...


122 posted on 01/30/2022 5:37:34 PM PST by little jeremiah (Where We Go One We Go All)
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