Juice Making

My mother-in-law arrived Tuesday and brought with her this crate full of juice/wine grapes. The picture shows fewer grapes than we started with...it was mounded. I researched juice/wine grapes and I believe this variety might be called "Delaware" grapes.
I decided to juice them using my Saftborn Steam Juice-Extractor. I've only used this neat gadget one other time with great results. The neat thing about it is that the fruit does not boil in water, thus diluting it. It has four parts: the water reservoir, the juice catcher with hose attached for draining, the fruit basket and lid. The steam rises into the basket rupturing the cell walls of the fruit and releasing the juices. The benefit of this method is that it all the vital minerals and natural acids, vitaminds, etc. stay unimpaired, they are never boiled off.


I spent a good part of Wednesday working on the mound of grapes to extract. Taking them off the steam and rinsing them and steaming them. The chickens loved the pulp that is left over after steaming.
I only got about half done on Wednesday so finished on Friday.




The juice that comes out, as a result, is very concentrated; thick and sweet.

The children LOVE the juice and have even told me it's too sweet. So we dilute it about 1/2 the water as juice. And yesterday I bought a bottle of sparkling water and the kids had sparkling juice with their dinner. They loved it!
I got 10 quarts, which means I'll have about 15 quarts of drinkable juice if I dilute slightly. It will go in the freezer today.