Liquid sunshine

I don't grow grapes.  Although they are native to Alabama, muscadine grapes are just too much work for a laid back gardener like myself.  The vines require a sturdy trellis and careful annual pruning to guarantee a good harvest each year.  After harvesting, these grapes must be processed in some way to preserve them.  Their skins are tough and they have big seeds which make them less than ideal for munching.

All that being said, there is nothing that tastes quite like a muscadine grape, still warm from the sun, in spite of all the work involved.

Some good friends gave me a grocery sack filled with scuppernongs (a variety of muscadine).  Since we are not preserve fans in this house, I decided to make homemade grape juice. 

I mashed the grapes with a potato masher, simmered them in a large pot with a little sugar to help release the flavors, and then ran them through my tomato strainer.  The juice was still a little pulpy for my taste so I squeezed it through some cheese cloth. 

Voila!  I ended up with about three cups of super concentrated grape juice.  After all this work, my sweet husband informed me that he doesn't care for the flavor of muscadines; more for me!!  Two or three tablespoons of concentrate in a glass of iced water tastes just like sunshine to me.