I already made a batch of jam and don't need any more (we did several batches recently with all different fruits, so I'm good on jam for the next year or more).

What else can I do with concords?? I'm going to have a bunch ripe in the next week or two. Hate to see them go to waste. Ideas??

Juice?

Eh... I dunno... looking for something more creative.

I think I'm gonna try this recipe I found at allrecipes.com for a grape pie. There's actually a couple of 'em on there. Sounds interesting. If it's good, I'm gonna do like some people on there suggest and make several fillings, then freeze them in a lined pie pan, that way when you want to make another one, you just stick the frozen (pre-formed) filling in the crust and voila!!

If anyone else has any interesting grape recipes, I'm all ears. One can only eat so much jam... and pie.

wine?

FRUIT MOLD

2 cups boiling water
1 large or 2 small pkgs. cranberry jello
1 1/2 cups cold ginger ale, sprite, or water
2 cups halved concord grapes
1 can (11 oz.) mandarin oranges, drained

Stir boiling water into jello in larg bowl at least 2 minutes.
Stir in cold ginger ale.
Refrigerate about 1 1/2 hours or until thinkened.
Stir in fruit.
Spoon into a 6 cup mold which has been oiled
Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

To unmold: Dip mold in warm water for about 15 seconds. Gently pull jello from around edges with moist fingers or a knife. Place moistened serving plate on top of mold, invert mold and plate. Gently remove mold and center jello on plate. Garnish as desired.

Snoopy57

Mrs K - I've TOTALLY been wanting to start making wine... unfortunately I've yet to gather the needed equipment (mostly the jug to ferment it in) and my greenhouse endeavor is currently eating up any extra cash. NEXT year the plan is wine.

Snoopy - great idea... I wonder if it'd work with vegetarian jello. I haven't had much success with it yet, unfortunately. Just doesn't set up as well as traditional jello.

Oh... and I have to say... when I first saw "fruit mold", I thought "GROSS"!!! LOL

Making wine is cheap- mix in a gallon jug, sugar and about 1 teaspoon of yeast, add juice about 8 cups. You can just add the grapes, and smush them if you want.

The original recipe I have is add 5 cups of sugar, but that seems to make it too sweet for me, so, I cut back on the sugar, and kind of go by the taste of the juice, I like it just a bit sweeter than I would like to drink, because you have to feed the yeast. Stir well, can add a bit of water to fill the gallon jug, stir and cover with a cloth and a rubberband, put in a darkish warm place, I put it under my sink, and every few days give it a good stir. Which should make it foam up a bit, when it quits foaming up, then stain it and bottle it and store it cool.

Now it might not be perfect, and to make it perfect you need all those tools. However, if mine is too sweet, well I mix it with a drier kind, but I usually drink a small glass at night, most of the winter as a blood restorative (old wives tale, probably, but it does seem to make me feel better).

mk

ps. I use all sorts of juice, currents, chokecherries, grape juice... whatever. you can make wine.

I don't have a recipe because I've never made it myself, but my parents grew wonderful Concord grapes, & Concord Grape Pie was a late-summer/early fall staple at our house. And it was DELICIOUS!! Warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top? Fabulous. I definitely recommend you try it.

quote:

vegetarian jello

I never had vegetarian jello
So can not say if the Fruit would be
Good with Veg Jello.
I never thought of this as funny
"fruit mold", "GROSS
But IT IS..I am LOL..
Thanks for making me laugh.

Snoopy57

LOL Ya just never know. I never heard of leaf mold till I got on this board... so I figured fruit mold must be even better! HAHA

I had lots of Concord grapes this season, and after I made several batches of jelly and juice, I tried to make wine in the "old world style" (got some instruction from YouTube).
I crushed the very-ripe-but-not-cracked grapes in a large non-reactive pot, covered with cheese cloth and put it in a draft free place. (I refrained from using my feet to get the job done fast).
In 2 days I could tell some fermentation had started. It smelled wonderful, so I let it sit there, occasionally stirring the mixture, believing that by the time the fermentation would stop the wine was going to be ready.
It took nearly 3 weeks for the fermentation to slow down to almost nothing, but by that time the wine was no longer wine.
It was vinegar.
It's good vinegar, though, but not exactly the result I had in mind.
Live and learn.