Grape Juice

What's in your freezer?
One third of my freezer is very colorful. Red and blue and purple. Cherries and blueberries and concentrated grape juice. Oh and two gallon freezer bags of blackberries. The Montmorency cherries came pitted and lightly sugared in a large tub from the Southside farmer's market and all I had to do was separate it into freezer bags. The Blue Ray blueberries were picked by the boys and I, cleaned, individually frozen on cookie sheets and bagged. The Concord grapes came from my in-laws and I spent Sunday afternoon cleaning them, slowly cooking the grapes, straining them, reducing the juice into a concentrate, adding a little sugar and pouring into freezer boxes. The blackberries are from my bushes, prepared the same as blueberries.

Since leaving the corporate world, I've started preserving fruit. Berries from the grocery store in winter - whether fresh or frozen - are totally unsatisfactory compared to the fruit I freeze. Even the teenage boys notice the difference. And Welch's grape juice tastes like colored sugar water compared to the intense grape flavor produced from boiling down your own grapes.

I know the same is true of vegetables and perhaps next year I'll venture into corn and green beans. There is no way to cost justify the effort. A can or bag of corn from the store is less expensive than home-grown and preserved even without considering labor. The only reason to do this is the taste. And the satisfaction of admiring your freezer contents.