Ponies and grapes

It's the season of bounty and we are gathering, making and storing for the winter now.  My boys are at the stage where they are eating more then me and seem eternally hungry (ie asking what supper will be while they are eating lunch).  I don't buy all organic all the time (too expensive!), but am conscious of where my food comes from and how it was grown.  It's such a tricky balance where it seems like a luxury to afford what is good and wholesome for hungry boys.  And this fall I'm trying to think as creatively as we can to make healthy, relatively inexpensive meals for our family that both satisfy and nourish their growing bodies.  Part of this includes going directly to the farms or farmers to buy our food. 

 The grapes in the vineyard behind my parent's place aren't quite ready yet.  Last year was a bad year- mice had nibbled away at the roots of many of the vines and there hadn't been many grapes, so we felt like we missed eating these grapes.  This year it looks like a bumper crop, except that we need about a week of sun to ripen the rest of it.  We'll be making grape juice and then also grape jelly out of these grapes that lasts us for about a year.  It's so amazing to be able to make and bake out of what grows around us, isn't it? 

And the ponies were just an added bonus.  How cute are they. 

The Grape

This weekend we drove out to Yarrow to pick up the boys from my parent's place and, of course, we had to pick up more grapes. We've already made grape juice from 20 lbs of grapes this year... and it's a lot of work... but when you see these grapevines full to the brim of these juicy concord organic grapes it just makes you want to do something with them.
You might just be asking what we are doing with all this juice? Well, we usually manage to make a couple of batches of Grape jelly for the year with a few extras to give a way to friends and family. But also, the grape juice is really amazing. It's like eating a bunch of fresh grapes, it tastes that fresh and delicious.