Note: the following recipe is for story only, I am not advocating that you go out and do this with your 40 pounds of grapes and you will have perfect juice. This is my first time using it, and I have not got to drink the stuff yet as it hasn't set long enough, so I can't even tell you if I got it right yet.
After a couple of hours of picking them off the stems, and getting rid of any bugs and ugly grapes, we ended up with this (the 12 pounds of grapes in a big bag for weighing with our hanging scale):
Then we washed them, and picked over them again; you don't want any of the ugly, shriveled up, smooshed ones for making this stuff.
Then you dump a cup of grapes in each jar, which has been washed and sterilized, and is still hot from being sterilized (i.e. just out of a dishwasher where you set all the wash and dry cycles to hot!), and then add 3/4 cup of sugar, and fill the rest of the jar up with boiling water. The rest of Grandma's recipe is kinda vague to those of us used to modern canning techniques. It went something like this: seal the jars, and let cool; then invert for several hours, and then store upright. Will be ready to use in 6 weeks. No mention of what canning method to use to process these babies, and no way was I going to do the old invert to seal thing. We did that with some maple syrup the first year we made it, and ended up with mold. Ugh!
So I go searching the grand old Internet, and come across a magazine article for the same recipe, but with lo and behold, water bath canning directions. Yea!!! So we water bath canned these guys for the time suggested, and ended up with these:
I have more picture of the actual process somewhere. I think I must have took them with Ryan's phone instead of mine, and I didn't send them to my e-mail yet. When I find them, I'll try to update this post.
In about a month we'll have to crack one of these puppies open and see what it's like.
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