Ariel Patton, a volunteer with the UC Master Food Preserver Online Program, shared her experience of making grape jelly as part of an annual tradition. Patton described the process of picking grapes from her garden as summer ends and preparing them for preservation.
She noted that there is a common misconception about using overripe or bruised fruit for jelly-making. According to Patton, “What is true is that there is a shelf life to everything; some things simply cannot wait. As the fruit gets more mature, there are more sugars, sure. But the pectin and acid, responsible for the lovely, wobbly texture that jelly is named for, declines as the grape turns from puckering green to ripe purple.”
Patton explained each step of making grape jelly: cooking down several pounds of grapes until they release their juice, straining out skins and solids after cooking, removing tartrate crystals formed during cooling, and finally combining the strained liquid with sugar and lemon juice before boiling it to reach the proper gel point. She uses an instant-read thermometer to determine when the mixture has reached 220°F at sea level.
Reflecting on her food preservation activities during the pandemic, Patton said canning became “a way to measure out time, to bottle it up, to tick it off, to mark its passing.” She highlighted both the satisfaction and inefficiency involved in home preservation: “As much as I personally enjoy this process, I emphatically do not believe we would have a better food system if everyone had to do this every time they wanted a PB&J. If anything, this annual ritual makes me marvel at the complexity hidden in every bite of food.”
Patton concluded by emphasizing how preserving food allows people to enjoy produce at its peak long after harvest season has ended: “To preserve is to grasp the ephemeral and save the very best at its peak for another day.”
