I picked about 4 quarts of crabapples that ranged in size from a quarter to a golf ball. I washed them and Noel helped me quarter them & remove the bugs and bruises. They were then barely covered with water, brought to a boil and simmered on low for about 10 minutes. I sent Noel to the local hardware store to pick up some cheesecloth for straining and we were on our way to ‘somewhere’.

I lined a colander with the cloth and let the crabapples drain for a couple hours until they stopped dripping. Everything I’ve read said don’t stir, press or mush the apples or your jelly will get cloudy.

Then I tasted the juice . . .  the flavor was almost non-existent. I could have added cinnamon but I couldn’t picture myself eating cinnamon jelly. So here’s where the grapes from our little arbor came in. In the past I’ve made grape jam from my trusty old basic cookbook, ‘Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book’. The ‘Spiced Grape Jam’ recipe calls for a cup of water so I used the crabapple juice instead. The juice definitely gave the grape jam a little different flavor and it turned out delicious.

1 ½ pounds Concord grapes (Our little arbor has 3 different kinds of grapes- dark purple, light purple and green. They were already planted when we moved here so I don’t know the official names.)
1 cup crabapple juice or water
2 ¼ cups sugar

The original ‘spiced’ recipe calls for 1 T. grated orange peel, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon & 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves. I love the flavor of the grapes by themselves so I don’t add the spices.

Wash grapes; separate skins from pulp. Reserve skins. (Be ready to have purple fingers for a couple of days.) Cook pulp on low temperature a in 3-quart saucepan until soft; sieve gently to remove seeds.  Add grape skins (I zap in food processor first so the pieces aren’t so big) and crabapple juice to the grape pulp along with the sugar; cook over medium-low heat until it starts to get thick. It takes about 30 minutes but keep checking – it does thicken more after it cools. Pour into hot scalded jars and seal.  Makes about three ½-pints. After the jars cool store in the refrigerator.