Juicing Fruit the Easy Way

I posted a while ago about our odd mead receipt in which I talked about my juice concentrates. This caused confusion so I thought I should share this method. It is a quick way to put up extra fruit as you leave it juice in the canning jar. I learned it from my grandmother who made grape juice this way.

1. Pick and clean the fruit.
2. Blanch it very quickly in boiling water. It just takes a dip. We want to make sure there are no wild yeasts.
3. Put one cup of fruit in each quart jar. Our canner holds seven jars, so we make seven quarts at a time.
4. Put one cup of sugar over the fruit in each jar.
5. Boil water and pour it over the sugar and fruit in each jar, leaving a half-inch head space. 
6. Stir the contents of each jar well.
7. Cap with sterilized canning flats and rings. Don’t put the rings on too tightly. They are meant to allow a little air to escape the jar to create the vacuum that will seal the jar.
8. Place these jars on a rack in your canner. 
9. Add warm water until it covers the jars.
10. Put the canner on the heat and bring the water to a boil.
11. Process (boil) for 45 minutes. 
12. Remove jars from the canner and allow them to cool.  You will hear popping sounds as the vacuum effect pulls down the flats.