This past weekend our family made grape juice with our very bountiful crop of concord grapes. I have always been working and never had the time to even attempt this in the past. However, this year I am home and I was determined to use make juice out of each and every grape! The first step was to actually pick them. I was amazed at how many we had in our small "vineyard". We really do not have that large of space for them, but we were able to pick four bucketfuls.
Next you have to wash them and take them all off of the vines. Tara was a big help with that. I told her that if she wanted to go on her date later in the evening, that she needed to get all the grapes off the vines before she left-Ha! She did an awesome job ( I think she must have really wanted to go on that date). Note the facial mask she has on in prep for the evening :)
Next you place them in a steam juicer. Then you simply place the lid on and let the steamer do the work. It is amazing how the grapes just shrivel up and release all of their juices.
Soon you start to see the juice appear in the surgical tubing. This is where the juice is collected before being bottled. Emma loved watching the juice come into the tube. It was difficult at times to keep her from filling up the bottles a drop at a time. I had to keep telling her to be patient and let the juice gather.
This is a picture of the grapes shriveling as they are steamed.
You then release the clamp on the surgical tubing and fill the bottles. Emma especially liked this part. Her job was to release the clamp and I held onto the bottles. I wanted to make sure that my floor did not end up purple!
These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago while the weather was still warm. In the picture above she is waiting on the sidelines to return to the game. 
This is her team at half time getting a pep talk from her coach...Aryl. He is a very patient man. He was great with all ten of the nine year old girls. They really liked him. 
These are just more pictures of the same game. I can't wait to see how much she improves over the winter. Her next season is in the spring with the same team. Go Emma and continue to be an animal on the field!
While in Oregon a few weeks ago, all of my family met at Kirk and Gina's home to make apple cider. When we were growing up we would do this each fall to sell the cider. The proceeds our family received from the sell of the cider was used to pay our ward budget each year. I recall many afternoons coming home from school and heading outside to pick up apples and make cider. Most of those days it was freezing cold and I can still remember the pain in my hands from having them in cold water cleaning off the apples. BRRRR!
Next you wash off the apples. Kirk and Gina wash theirs in a kiddie pool...pretty smart.
This is another picture of washing apples. In the background you can see the press. The two wooden bins are were the apples will end up after going through the hopper.
Then you start dropping the apples into the top of the press through the hopper. This chops up the apples into about 1" pieces. They then drop below into the wooden bin.
When the bin is full, you scoot it forward and then use the crank press to start squeezing the apples. This makes the juice come out very fast.
We then let the juice drain into a bucket. (Note: You need a couple of buckets on hand because they fill up so fast). I forgot to take a picture of pouring the buckets of cider over cheese clothe to get out any unwanted pulp.
Then you pour the cider into gallon jars or milk jugs. YUMMMM! This is my niece, Lauren, sampling the cider. I have to say it is pretty darn good stuff.
Christopher recently sent my home a CD full of pictures from his mission. This was one of them and it made me laugh! You can tell that girls are not completely out of his mind. At least this was a P-Day and he was not dressed in a shirt and tie. Christopher! Stay focused! :)
