Lately, life has been giving me grapes. Although having large quantities of grapes is not an issue, figuring out what to do with them all at a very busy time of year requires some strategy. Wanting to put those grapes to good use, I decided raisins were the answer.
Most of our south fence line is a trellis for grape vines, and with all the pruning and blackberry clearing we did over the winter, they recently became laden with huge clusters of ripe grapes.
The Concord grapes, with their crunchy seeds are wonderful for snacking, juicing and making jam.
There are a few other varieties of seedless table grapes out there, including Thompson Seedless for drying as raisins.
Our one small dehydrator was barely enough to keep up with all our fruit last fall, so we were pleasantly surprised when this big package arrived at our front door last week with a note on top from Corey’s Mom. Moms are wonderful for many reasons, but particularly for knowing when and how to lend a hand in our lives.
We picked huge bowls full of the seedless varieties, and it wasn’t much work at all to pull them off the stems and spread them out on the drying trays. With two dehydrators going at once, we made short work of our harvest.
My advice is this: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade; and when life gives you grapes, make raisins. Not only is it important to keep a positive outlook and to be productive, but making your own raisins is easy and they are much better than the ones from the store.
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