Friday, March 21, 2014

grape stomping

IMG_8435IMG_8430 OK, let's hop off this self-rediscovery train for a bit and come and visit our place on a sunny Sunday afternoon in March. The grapes on the back deck are swollen and juicy and if we don't pick them today, the birds will beat us to it.

IMG_8440 IMG_8443 Let's pick bunch after bunch after bunch. We can use scissors or just snap the vines off with our hands. You go up the ladder and pass them down to me and I'll fill the bucket and after a while we can swap. Let's sing and laugh as the grapes explode in our hands and the juice runs down our arms. The grapes are warm, the day is filled with sunshine, life is gorgeous.
IMG_8478 IMG_8480 When we've filled our buckets it's  time for the fun part! Let's tip all those gorgeous grapes into a cut off drum, stalks and all. Let's hose off our feet and jump right in. Let's stomp on all those grapes and make juice baby! IMG_8519 IMG_8501 IMG_8515
After we've all taken turns stomping and the grapes are feeling squooshed, it's time to strain the juice out. If you reach down into the barrel and get a cup full, I'll pour it through the strainer and into the saucepan.
IMG_8507 Yep, it's thirsty work this grape juice making. We're almost there now, have a drink, hose off your legs, feed the scraps to the chooks and let's go inside and bottle it up. IMG_8543 IMG_8552 IMG_8539 We're not really wine drinkers in our house, so we'll pop these bottles up on the shelf for now and bring them down as we need them for icy poles, fruit leathers, vodka cocktails and cordial.

It's delicious don't you think? the perfect mix of sweet with a little hint of sour. Yum!

Thanks so much for your help, it's been such great autumn fun.

See you next week for tomato squooshing?

Big autumn love!

xx

27 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for inviting me Kate! The birds eat out grapes before they even turn red the buggers.

    xx

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  2. Oh how awesome - i love reading about the fun you have.

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  3. I loved joining you and the family in that fun....have a super lovely weekend. xx

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  4. F U N !! I love this, my boys would be in their element! x

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  5. thanks for taking me straight back to my childhood.
    my family still make home made wine every single year back in SA.
    but we moved on form foot stomping after the first season.
    there is nothing like it.
    best. fun. ever.
    xxx

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  6. Just beautiful Kate, have a lovely weekend x

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  7. That looks like so much fun!
    The colour of the juice is beautiful, I wonder if the grape skins would dye yarn that beautiful deep grape colour?

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  8. I think that looks like a lot of fun for adults and kids alike. We didn't have grapes growing up to stomp on, mind you my grandmother had a grape vine at her place however we did have a big old round metal bin which was supplied by the council to put your newspapers in called "The Paper Bin" and in summer we would empty the papers out, plonk it in the front yard in front of neighbours and fill it up with water and one person would hop in for a dip/swim. I think stomping on grapes and getting squirted looks like jolly good fun and your girls obviously think it's lots of fun too. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia

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  9. This looks to have been a wonderful day. I am trying to imagine what grape juice tastes like fresh from the vine like that.

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  10. Hi Kate
    That is brilliant!!! What a great gift of life you are giving to your children. I mean how many kids get to do this? Be proud.
    Xxx
    Annette
    My Rose Valley

    PS Thanks for your message the other day. It lifted my spirit. Just what I needed. :D
    PS2 Have you seen this? The best Cancer Awareness video I've seen. It made me smile and almost cry at the same time. Very emotional and absoutely brilliant.
    http://faithtap.com/954/the-pink-tutu-project/#t/954/

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  11. You sure know how to have fun down there, Kate!! x

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  12. what a beautiful day filled with life! i can almost taste the juice though the pictures! enjoy these wonderful days as much as you can!

    Take care, Anne

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  13. I can smell the juice! So wonderfull!!
    Jutta xx

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  14. What fun! I wish we could squish the juice out of our apples by treading them.

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  15. oh how wonderful! Your posts always capture wonderful magic, this looks like a simply wonderful day x

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  16. I'm yearning for a drop of that grape juice. Great helpers your kids.

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  17. I've never been a grape juice fan, but I think I'd drink this - toe jam and all! :) Beautiful pictures of a wonderful family moment!

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  18. Beautiful! Looks such a fun day:) thanks for sharing it with us.

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  19. What fun - and a tasty product at the end to boot!!

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  20. What fun! I didn't know you could just bottle it up and keep it like that. How long can it keep?

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  21. Oh how delicious! Having just finished touring the Barossa, I've finally gotten on board with Maggie Beer's obsession with verjuice and am drinking my verjuice straight or with soda and thinking about making martinis. Your grape juice is such a vibrant colour. I can almost taste it!

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  22. I absolutely LOVE the word "Squoooshing", it's what I do when I get new yarn. Love love love that you say it too.
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  24. That looks like so much fun. Id love to get my feet inyo some of them grapes haha
    * follower, love it if you followed me. http://reneehartsthis.blogspot.com.au/
    Renee x

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  25. Send the girls over to BG next year, that's when we get our first grape harvest. So looking forward to all that wine!

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Thanks so much for stopping by...

I do read every single comment you leave and appreciate it very much, but I should let you know that I can be a wee bit on the useless side when replying to comments, that's just me, everyday life sometimes gets in the way....so I'll apologise now, just in case.

Kate XX

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