Muscadine Jelly... my first canning experience!

 

One of my hubby and boys' favorite treats is Muscadine jelly, made by Grandma in Georgia. On our Saturday morning trip to the ASU Farmer's market, I was pleasantly surprised to find muscadines in Arkansas!! I bought a gallon of muscadines, received some instruction from the kind lady who sold me the muscadines, and decided to try out this jelly making and canning process:)

fresh muscadines

crushed muscadines--thanks to my strong hubby:)

I boiled the crushed muscadines in a couple inches of water for 25 minutes and then strained them.

Muscadine juice (about 4 cups) after boiling and straining (with colander and strainer or cheesecloth)

I brought the 3 to 4 cups of juice to a boil for 5 minutes, added about 6 cups of sugar and boiled for about 5-10 minutes. I added 1 packet of SureJel and boiled 1 more minute.

After all of the boiling, I poured hot jelly into prepared jelly jars.

I boiled the sealed jars for about 5 minutes.

 One of the things I am most passionate about is... cooking! However, I have never attempted the whole process of canning. I usually freeze our garden veggies and soups, instead of canning. I learned that canning is definitely not as difficult as it looks, and I'll be doing this project again soon!

Finished product!!

Sidewalk painting

The boys had so much FUN measuring the ingredients, mixing colors and painting creative pictures on the driveway! We're thankful to have art class outside in this beautiful weather!

Equal parts cornstarch + water + 1-2 drops of food coloring=               an afternoon of FUN sidewalk painting!!

Evan painted "power"

Ben painted a machine and a tree