WHAT ARE YOU CANNING TODAY?

[Mickey328]

In general, I find I prefer jam to jelly...of any kind...it's easier to spread. With the concords, I squirt the "guts" out of the skins, then cook them till soft and run them through a food mill to remove the seeds. Then I put the skins through the food processor till they're ground up pretty fine and then mix them back in with the seed free pulp. It's a bit "fiddly" but not a difficult process I've tried it with other types of grapes, but nothing turns out like the Concords do!

Wow, I'm trying to imagine all those raisins! We put our vine on the southwest corner of our deck as well, wanting to use it for some shade in addition to the fruit. We're sort of planning to put another couple in as well to have that whole corner receive some relief from the sun. There's nothing like sitting in the shade of a grapevine and eating the fruit

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Just noticed that some Velveeta cheese in the pantry is nearing it's expiration date. I've heard that some folks don't pay any attention to those dates on (overly) processed items like that, but it gives me a good excuse to practice canning cheese. I'm gonna give it a shot and see what happens...

 

[Mickey328]

I've never pay attention to those dates...if it ain't moldy or dried up it's good to go in my book! LOL I'll be interested to hear how it goes. I've never canned cheese before either.

 

[Hinotori]

I haven't tried canning cheese and I can't eat Velveeta. If you have success, let us know how it turns out. I wouldn't think the heat would cause any issues with the product in the taste or texture.


I planted two grapes in pots this last spring. One is a concord. It grew better than the other one, but then the other one got chickened a couple times. They try and get in the pots to dust bathe. Almost 18 acres where I don't really care if they dig their holes and they go for the pots.

I'm going to make a raised bed along one section of the new run and plant one of the grapes in it. Will keep it from flooding to much in winter. I'll be putting down hardware cloth under some mulch to keep the flying t-rex from digging stuff out. With luck we might get some grapes. We really aren't hot enough here.

 

[Mickey328]

We stuck our concord on the southwest corner of our deck, hoping to get both some fruit and a little shade. I didn't know till just a week or so ago that you have to prune grapes pretty severely to get them to fruit! Our vine is huge now...clear up over the top of a 5' trellis and really bushy. From what I understand I'll have to prune away about 75% of it this winter. That seems harsh, but I really want some fruit! LOL

Chickens are contrary critters, aren't they? Make several very nice nest boxes for them and they all use the same one, give them ample room to roam and they go right where you don't want 'em, seems they'll just do everything opposite for whatever reason, LOL. In some ways I wish we had the room to let them free range, but having them contained has its advantages too.

 

[moolie]

I wish we could grow Concords, but in a zone 3-4 I don't think they'd make it

There are some grape varieties that will grow here, but I don't know anything about them so I'm not too willing to give up space and take on a new project that we may not end up liking.

 

[Mickey328]

I dunno, Moolie...they're pretty hardy and I think there are cultivars that would work for you. I grew grapes in Winnipeg...not Concords, (don't remember the variety) and they did well with just a bit of winter protection. After the freeze, I'd pack dried leaves in around them and let the snow cover over it. As long as they freeze and stay frozen, they're usually okay...it's freeze/thaw, freeze/thaw that causes so much trouble. You might stick in a vine near a fence somewhere and try it...they don't tend to take much room since they grow mostly up.

 

[moolie]

I dunno, Moolie...they're pretty hardy and I think there are cultivars that would work for you. I grew grapes in Winnipeg...not Concords, (don't remember the variety) and they did well with just a bit of winter protection. After the freeze, I'd pack dried leaves in around them and let the snow cover over it. As long as they freeze and stay frozen, they're usually okay...it's freeze/thaw, freeze/thaw that causes so much trouble. You might stick in a vine near a fence somewhere and try it...they don't tend to take much room since they grow mostly up.

Yeah, it's the constant freeze/thaw cycle all winter long that really messes with things here, in addition to our "official" zone. We get warm Chinook winds racing eastward from the Rockies every couple of weeks throughout the winter months and don't really keep much snow on the ground. So things that require snow cover for insulation just can't hack it here.

Gardening here is a real adventure--possibility of frost (or snow even) in any month of the year, super cold temps during the winters, Chinooks, arid/not much precipitation year round (although June is always rainy), some years there's no spring, some years there's no autumn--if there's a gardening challenge, we've got it!

 

[Mickey328]

Same here...don't ya just love mountain weather systems? It took some getting used to after moving from the prairies where it's so much less changeable. We generally don't get a lot of really cold weather, but it can be 0 one day and 20 the next, which seems to wreak havoc with the plants. For the more tender ones, we mulch heavily with whatever we have handy and it seems to help a lot. We're technically zone 5 here, which gives me a much broader range than the 3 of Winnipeg, but that's the "official" zone, LOL. I've never done anything special for our grape vine, though and it's going great guns. Evidently the only reason we haven't had fruit yet is that it hasn't been pruned. I didn't know that was necessary...duh! But it'll get done this winter and hopefully next year...yum!

 

[Mickey328]

Same here...don't ya just love mountain weather systems? It took some getting used to after moving from the prairies where it's so much less changeable. We generally don't get a lot of really cold weather, but it can be 0 one day and 20 the next, which seems to wreak havoc with the plants. For the more tender ones, we mulch heavily with whatever we have handy and it seems to help a lot. We're technically zone 5 here, which gives me a much broader range than the 3 of Winnipeg, but that's the "official" zone, LOL. I've never done anything special for our grape vine, though and it's going great guns. Evidently the only reason we haven't had fruit yet is that it hasn't been pruned. I didn't know that was necessary...duh! But it'll get done this winter and hopefully next year...yum!