A few years ago Jeff and I were backing out of our driveway when something caught my eye in the rearview mirror. Did my eyes betray me or was it… grapes? Growing along the state highway where our little house is located? The answer was yes, and now I recognize that various wild grapes grow all over the roadsides near where we live. The vast majority seem to be Vitis mustangensis, which are actually considered to be invasive in our part of the United States (they originate in the south, and can be quite aggressive if left to do as they wish). Many people do harvest them to make juice, wine, pies, etc, but I have never bothered since mustang grapes near us tend to be small and tart, with enormous seeds. Even the birds don’t seem all that interested in them, as they often wither on the vines before any of our avian visitors consume them.
Recently, though, I was on my neighbor’s property, looking for a lost chicken, when I noticed some very different grapes dangling off a stand of trees. They actually looked quite similar to the standard red grapes you might buy at a grocery store, so I decided to give one a try. While they were definitely less sweet than most cultivated grapes, the taste was surprisingly pleasant. The consistency of the pulp reminded me of Concord grapes, and the seeds were small in relation to the size of the fruit. I used my trusty plant identification app to learn more about my discovery, and I quickly learned they were Vitis labrusca, or fox grapes. These grapes are thought to be native to the Northeastern United States, and may have even been observed by Vikings on their early expeditions in North America.
I knew my neighbor would have absolutely no interest in harvesting wild grapes, so I took the liberty of filling a bucket with as many grapes as I could reach (we later brought his family a jar of the finished product). After a bit of research, I decided either jam or jelly would probably be the easiest thing to make with my harvest, and I consulted a few different recipes before attempting my own version of wild grape jelly. Here is what we ended up doing:
- Pick and wash the grapes. Once we had removed the grapes from the vines and discarded the ones that were shriveled or otherwise unhappy looking, we ended up with about three pounds of fruit. We washed the grapes very well before starting to make the juice.
- Cook the grapes with water. We poured the grapes into a large stock pot and added water. We actually added too much – we basically used enough to just cover the grapes with water. I think for three pounds of grapes, a few cups of water would be fine. But, if you add too much water, you can correct for that mistake later. Start heating your concoction, until the water comes to a boil. Once it is boiling, mash the grapes up with a potato masher, a wooden spoon, or whatever you have lying around that will serve this purpose. Keep cooking the mixture until the liquid tastes strongly of grape and has a strong reddish-purplish color. In our case, we probably cooked the grapes and water for thirty minutes or so.
- Strain the juice. We started by pouring the juice and pulp into a mesh colander that was positioned over a large bowl. We then dropped the remaining pulp (which was still quite juicy) into one of Jeff’s mesh brewing bags, and we suspended it over the bowl of juice. After a few hours, most of the remaining liquid had dripped out of the pulp, and we ended up with about nine cups of juice.
- Refrigerate the juice. Apparently it’s common for tartaric acid crystals to form in grape juice. Putting the juice in the refrigerator for at least 12-24 hours can help separate these crystals so you can remove them before making jelly (or whatever else you might want to do with grape juice). We actually did not find any crystals after chilling our grape juice overnight. Why? Either we are juicing geniuses, or we just got lucky.
- Boil the juice. After determining that there were no crystals that needed to be removed, I brought the juice to a boil in a heavy-bottomed pot. Keep in mind that once you reach a boil, the juice will nearly double in volume, so definitely choose a large vessel for this part of the process.
- Add the pectin & sugar. Once the juice is boiling, it’s time to add the pectin. Pectin is really a must if you are attempting to make jelly from wild grapes. For those who have never used it before, it’s a starch found in many fruits and vegetables, and it’s what gives jelly structure. People seem to have a wide range of opinions about how much pectic to use when making jelly, so I just took an educated guess about what would work. I had purchased a 5.4 oz jar of Ball’s pectin, and decided to use the whole thing for the nine cups of juice we had collected (even though the internet did not think this was enough). I let the juice boil for a minute or so after I had stirred in the pectin, and then I added about seven cups of sugar. I actually thought the jelly tasted delicious with only four cups of sugar, but I had read that the pectin probably would not work properly without sufficient sugar, and I didn’t want to take any chances. In retrospect, I wish I had purchased low-sugar pectin, so I could have taken more liberties with the amount of sweetener I added. In any case, I kept the heat going under the pot while the sugar dissolved. Once I was sure all the sugar was properly incorporated, I removed the pot from the stove.
- Store and refrigerate jelly. I could tell the jelly was starting to set almost immediately, so I quickly transferred it into jars. I’m really not a canning expert, and I knew I was going to give most of the jelly away to friends, so I didn’t attempt to make it shelf-stable. Instead, I just spooned it into clean and sterile mason jars, and let it cool to room temperature. From there, I popped them in the fridge so they could finish setting overnight.
The conclusion? The jelly set beautifully, and aside from being a little sweeter than I prefer, I thought it was great. Perhaps because I skimped a bit on pectic, it isn’t a really stiff jelly, but more of a jam-like consistency, which to me is preferable. It’s been a hit with our friends and family. Assuming our neighbor doesn’t mind the occasional trespass, I expect this will become an annual tradition in our household. And who knows… maybe next year we will attempt wild grape wine, too!
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