Sunday, September 2, 2012

Muscadine Jelly: Take 1

We love our muscadines. My oldest daughter won't eat anything EXCEPT homeade muscadine jelly. I can honestly say that in her almost 7 years she has never had store bought jelly ( to my knowledge at least). Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches are a staple in our house, especially for lunches and it takes a lot of jelly. I have made strawberry, blueberry and blackberry this season already, but our muscadines are ready and I made one batch this weekend. I forsee several more batches in the future...
Aren't these delicious looking? The girls helped me pick them and only about half of what they picked ended up in the basket.

I washed them really well then put them into the pot to start the juicing process. I just smash them down with a potato smasher, then strain the juice into a different pot until I'm ready to cook it.

Ah the beautiful juice. It smells heavenly, and I always keep out a few cups to drink over the next day or so. Such a fresh juice, it is delicious.

And here are the "fruits" of my labor! I got 4 pints, 2 half pints, 1 quart and 2 little 3/4 pint sized jars. Of course we had to taste some and it was delicious. I am hoping to do about 4 more batches before the muscadines are gone...
 So what are you up to these days?

Until next time,
Happy Homesteading......


Linked up to The Carnival of Home Preserving, Morris Tribe Blog Carnival, Monday Homesteading Barn Hop, Frugal Days - Sustainable Ways, Simply Made Home, Fill those Jars Friday
These are great blogs with lots of link ups you might like.

11 comments:

  1. Beautiful jelly! I love Muscadines!
    Thank you for sharing this at the Carnival of Home Preserving!

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  2. Hello! I love muscadines! Those are so pretty! I think I like the white ones the best, but the red ones are delicious too! I don't have access to muscadines this year, but I have plenty of jelly I made last year. Enjoy your fruit! Blessings from Bama!

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    1. I am trying to motivate myself to pick a batch of the purple ones, to make some jelly from those also. Honestly though I prefer the flavor of the white ones. Thanks for stopping by!

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  3. We love muscadine jelly here also. It is soooo good.

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  4. Yum! Do you happen to have a recipe and does it take a pressure canner or can you do this with a waterbath? I am new to the south and muscadines. :)

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    1. Hi Joyness, No pressure canner, you honestly can just use the recipe from the pectin box, and substitute the muscadine juice for the grape juice. Normally it's about 5 cups of juice to ever box of pectin, plus the sugar if you are using the sugar recipe. There are other pectins that are low sugar or even sugar free, although I find the sugar free ones to always be runny.

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  5. I've never seen these!! What do they taste like?

    http://www.munchtalk.net

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    1. Honestly it is just a variety of grapes. To me they have a sweeter, fresh taste than normal grapes, although we do grow concord grapes also, they didn't produce too well this year.

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  6. I have never heard of these! I am so glad that you linked up to Simply Made Home. I am going to have to see if I can find them. My goal this year was to try new foods! I hope to see more posts from you! Thanks!

    Tara

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