My jelly-making friend came over this morning and we picked grapes again, a little more scientifically this time. Put a drop cloth on the ground and snipped bunches out of the tree with my limb pruner (minus the saw). And shook vines and dropped grapes also. He took the fruit home to his steam juice extractor and came up with a rosé colored juice, while mine, cooked with skin, seeds, sticks and all, is a full-fledged Chianti color. We each have about 2 quarts, so we'll do some scientific jelly-making. 1 batch of his juice straight, 1 batch of my juice straight, then we'll combine the rest and see what happens. Wondering if the flavor is in the skins or just the juice.

Soon I'm going to have my 16-year-old go help me pick one more bucket of grapes. I want him to have his own batch, something he picked, juiced, and turned into jelly. Hey, he can make bread, he knows how to make peanut butter, now this is the third leg of what my friend calls "the fifth major food group" - PB&J.

SRS