Free Food!

Nothing tastes better, when you are on a tight budget, than free!  We are lucky enough to live in a college town with many alleys that have an abundance of fruit growing over fences.  Mother was lucky enough to find concord grapes, pears and apples.  With the economy the way it is, many homes are sitting empty with yards full of ripe fruit begging for someone to harvest them.  Many neighbors would be glad to have people harvest what is left before it turns their yards into carpets of mush.

 

Mother spent the day canning grape juice and applesauce.  Never canned before?  Well, this is a good place to start.  Let's start with super easy grape juice:

Grape Juice

Use a pot large enough to cover your canning jars with 2 inches of water.  It takes a long time to bring a huge pot of water to a boil, so I put my empty jars and lids in the pot while it is heating up.  By the time you rinse the grapes and pull them off the vines, the jars are ready to be filled.  In a separate pan, bring water and raw honey to a boil.  Remove jars and lids from pot.  Put enough grapes in the jars to fill them 3/4 full.  Pour hot water and honey mixture into jars, leaving 2 inches of headroom.  Wipe rim of jars with clean towel.  Center lids on each jar and apply rings.  Put jars in boiling water for 10 minutes.  Remove and set aside.  You will hear the lids start popping as they seal.  Let jars sit undisturbed until cool.  When you are ready to use your juice, just strain the fruit before serving.

Applesauce

If you have a food mill, you can chop up and use all of the apple.  Mother does not have a food mill, so she removes cores and stems.  Once the apples are cut up, you can throw them in a large pot with about a half cup of water and cook over medium heat until they get soft.  As the apples soften, stir, cover and simmer for a couple of hours until completely soft and broken down.  You can blend or mash the apples and put them in hot jars, leaving about a half inch of headroom, apply seals, rings, and boil for 5 minutes.  Having cooked the applesauce, and having it piping hot when added to jars, cuts the processing time down.

One bucket of apples yielded about 11 pints of applesauce.