As a child, one of my favorite treats at the holidays was home-made grape juice. My Grandmother always had some ready . While the adults were mixing their gin and tonics, she’d carefully hold the mason jar and pour out kid-sized glasses of rich purple juice.
The split-skinned grapes lurking at the bottom of the jar didn’t frighten me. I was used to them — to me, it was store-bought, grapeless grape juice that seemed strange.
This year, when my friend Deb sent me home with grapes from her arbor, I had a sudden inspiration to try making my grandmother’s canned grape juice. Of course, these grapes are not the variety Grandmother would have used. She would insist on Concord grapes, which Dad used to buy for her in late summer by the bushel basket at a roadside farm stand.
But what recipe did she use? Looking through her old card file, I couldn’t locate it, so I turned to “The Mennonite Community Cookbook.” They had several options to choose from. I have no idea if this one is even close. I went for it because it’s the recipe that sealed the grapes inside the jar.
Witness the results in the picture above. Is it grape juice yet? This Thanksgiving, we’re about to find out.