It's That Grape Harvesting Time of Year

it's that grape harvest time of year over here. sebastian, maddi and i took on the chore this season and i am so glad they were up for it. paul is away and it is too much for one person. 

sebastian and maddi have recently returned from their time in cornwall, england. sebastian is working on his master's degree in heritage management from the university of exeter. while he attended the degree course semesters, they lived in the port town of falmouth on the south coast of cornwall. (poldark country :) we are loving having them back and here with us as sebastian finishes up his papers for the degree.

back to grapes...we know it's time to harvest when we wake up to ravaged grape vines and sticky grape juice on the deck. the raccoons help themselves when the grapes are sweet, juicy and perfect. their timing is spot on every...single...year. so, the next sunny, saturday afternoon, the three of us picked and collected enough grapes from our two now mature grape vines. one of the vines produces white, thin-skinned, sweet, seedless grapes and the other white, thicker-skinned, sour-ish grapes with seeds. when we combine the two together for juice - it's delicious!

we decided the not as fun picking stage was over when we had finally filled our big, white cooler to overflowing. (still grapes on the vines to satisfy our ring-tailed night visitors for awhile) it is actually quite pleasant to pick the grapes hanging from the arbor as the now thick vines provide shade and a sweet, syrupy scent for the job. but, when it's over, the real fun begins. we take off our shoes, fill a storage container with warm soapy water, clean our feet and ankles and step straight into the waiting grape cache to mash. last year was the first year we made grape juice and the barefoot grape mashing was something i've wanted to do since i was a little girl watching the tv show i love lucy and the funny episode of lucille ball stomping grapes. i smiled when i checked it off my bucket list.

after the fun of grape mashing, we strained, strained and strained the juice some more. the leftover skins, seeds and stems were put in the compost and the beautiful sweet juices flowed filling five, one gallon jugs - two more gallons than last year! we will freeze the juice to enjoy through the coming seasons. after hosing down the sweet, sticky deck so the wasps would go away, we picked a few more grapes so maddi could make fruit leather. she also dried a tray full of grapes in the sun to make beautiful, fresh sultanas. i would say 2022 was a very successful, fun and delicious grape harvest.