North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Mauch1@aol.com]

Dell,

>1. Sure jell mentions slipping skins, to be ground and added later.....how 
>does one slip skins?
They recipe is assuming that you're using Concord or one of 
it's "relatives" Vitis lambrusca (or V. lambruscana) where the 
skin slips off the meat of the grape when they're ripe. 
Depending on Valiant's heritage, it may not be slip skin.

>2. We prefer the taste of frozen jams....it didn't list a recipe  there 
>(only cooked jam)....I didn't have enough grapes to experiment on this our 
>first year....is there perhaps some reason that grape needs cooking?
Cooking would help the pectin "set".  Otherwise I don't know...


>3. I picked them just before our first hard freeze (18F) 2 weeks back, is 
>there any advantage to letting grapes freeze first on the vine?
I don't think there's any advantage.  Germans make "Ice Wine" 
by harvesting frozen grapes, and crushing/pressing while still
frozen, so the sugar is more concentrated.  The freezing will 
tend also to dehydrate the grapes themselves (if left on after 
freezing) and you're going to probably lose more grapes.

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6