Earlier in the year, when the fruit trees were dormant, I hired a fruit tree expert to come and discuss my mini orchard with me, as well as prune my trees. I was given some bad news. Essentially I had annihilated my apple tree as well as my grapevine. I was told neither would produce very well this year. The grapes would recover next year, and the apples, well, let’s not discuss that now.
She was right about the apples. But happily, the grapes have produced wildly. One side is bare of fruit, so I certainly would have had a better yield had I not hacked the poor thing up, but lucky for me the vine was more forgiving of me than perhaps it should have been.
My mother-in-law had canned grape juice the year before, with whole grapes. I loved the look of the jars. And because grapes come to bear during a busy season, it seemed an easier task to put up a bunch of grape juice for the kids. The hardest thing about this recipe is pulling the grapes from the vine.
I tried this recipe out with two different types of grapes: perlettes (a green, European table grape) and champagne grapes (teeny tiny red grapes). The recipe will work better with the smaller, juicier varieties. My assumption is that if you were going to use a concord grape, you should go the traditional route of squashing and juicing the fruit.
This grape juice method essentially uses a raw pack process. You can do the same recipe to can a whole jar of grapes, in which case you would simply fill the jar with grapes, and then add the syrup. You can adjust the syrup to your liking. I use a very light amount of syrup for this recipe to get as close to the natural sugar levels in most fruits. It also adds the fewest calories.
The final product is a very fresh tasting grape juice, which tastes more like grape and less like sugar. Enjoy!
Canned Grape Juice
makes three quart jars
3 cups whole grapes, off the vine
1 cup sugar
10 cups water
Directions:
- Sterilize your jars and lids.
- Stem, wash, and drain grapes.
- Prepare a syrup by combining the sugar and water and bringing it to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
- Add 1 cup of grapes to each quart jar. Ladle hot syrup into jars, being sure to release the air bubbles, until there’s 1 inch headspace.
- Wipe the rims and seal the jar.
- Process in a boiling water bath for twenty minutes (start counting once the water has reached a boil), more depending on altitude.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the recipe. My Mother taught me how to make juice this way, but I had forgotten over the years. thanks for the refreshment course. Happy juiceing!!!
Glad you found it helpful LaWanna! And that it brought back the nice memories!
Just found out my grandma made juice this way.. thanks for the recipe..
You’re welcome. I love when people have these discoveries from the past!
How long do they need to sit on the shelf before they have good flavor? Do you just drain the juice and drink? Or is it a concentrate you add water to? My aunt use to make a recipe that you add water. Thats why I ask. Thanks.
Hi Michelle – great questions. Easy answers:
1) You can essentially drink the juice as soon as you want to, but for the best flavor, let it sit on the shelf for at least a week.
2) This is not a concentrate. No need to mix it with water. I do have a lemonade concentrate on my site, if you search for that.
This is a very light grape juice. It’s delicious and refreshing. One complaint is that it goes very fast! =)
Can i use pint size jars and merely cut your recipe in half? This recipe sounds so easy…almost too easy to be true! Thanks!
Yes – you can. But I wouldn’t only because this is NOT a concentrate – so if you can it as pint jars, you’ve basically got yourself one cup of grape juice! It is SUPER simple. The juice is great. Very light and refreshing. We ended up canning about a dozen quarts and I am afraid half are already gone! (The other half would be, as well, if I didn’t stop heeding the kids’ requests!).
Thanks for this post, I have just got a very large quantity of grapes from my mom who got them from the neighbor lady. Not sure what type of grape they are, I’ve made loads of jelly but grape juice really seems like my next recipe to try since my kids love it. The only question I have is when you put the grapes in, do you have to smash them any or take the seeds out?
HI Michelle, Sorry to be tardy on replying. You don’t need to smash the grapes, but I’ve never made this recipe with seeded grapes. Basically you can strain the grapes out when you drink it, if you want to. Or, they will be soft and squishy (so I like to eat them, it’s like a surprise in your glass!), And you culd either spit the seeds out or swallow them. Whatever. It’s grape juice the easy way – so do it as easily as possible!!
Thanks for the recipe! I have two vines, one a sweet green eating grape with no seeds, and the other a redish purple grape with very large bitter seeds in them. I am going to try this recipe with the green grapes, because there is a lot of them and I don’t want them to go to waste!!!
You’re welcome. Enjoy! My kids love this grape juice!
Just wanted to let you know that I tried this recipe and it turned out wonderful!!!! I have 10 quarts so far and plan to do at least 20 more this weekend……I have also passed this recipe on to a friend with grandchildren who wanted an alternative to store bought juice. Even one of my picky teenage kids that I work with loved this juice! Thank you again for such a wonderful recipe!
Love the ease of this recipe. However, I am short on jars and still a lot of canning to do. Can I use more grapes per jar, for a richer juice? Thanks!
Yep – you can use more grapes if you would like. I would definitely hope you have seedless, if that is the case. And remember that the grape juice really comes from the liquid so the more mass taken up by grapes, the less grape juice you will actually get, unless you pour grapes and juice into each glass. =)
My mom made grape juice this way, but instead of syrup she poured white sugar on the grapes after they were in the jars and then poured boiling water on them leaving an inch of head room at the top. We like a less sweet juice, and I make mine with just grapes fresh from our vines covered with boiling water in hot jars just out of a boiling water bath. Sometimes the lids pop before I can even get them back into the hot water bath. But I put them in anyway. Haven’t been leaving them in for the full twenty minutes tho…more like five. Think it will be safe to partake?
Hi Sunny – your mom was basically using the same recipe as I did – only I mixed the boiling water + sugar first to make the syrup. Your mom poured the sugar into the jar and then added the boiling water. Either way works fine, tho I prefer to make the simple syrup first because it fully dissolves the sugar. Re: 5 vs 20 mins. 5 mins is totally fine for pints or quarts per the USDA’s website. So you’re fine. I totally overshot the 20 mins.
If the grapes are on the bottom of the jar after canning, does it mean the jar did not seal? There isn’t a button on the jar lid, so I assume it sealed, but several jars have the grapes on the bottom of the jar.
It’s fine if the grapes settle to the bottom. There’s no correlation between the jar not being sealed. If you used a regular 2 part lid and ring, and the lid is taut, it’s sealed. Try to pick it up from the lid, if you’re worried about it.
I live in Hawaii. I tried growing grapes here but I didn’t do well. Even though store bought grapes wouldn’t taste as good as right off the vine could I use store bought grapes? Thanks for sharing this recipe with us!
You can definitely use store bought grapes. Best to make sure they are seedless – not necessary, but obviously more appealing!
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