Juicing Done, Jelly Making Started

Friday morning I was up early trying to get everything ready for our juicing day. It is such a production that I sometimes wonder why I got involved in this tradition. My Aunt Tenna passed this on to us, she had the trees and the juice and taught my Mom and Dad how to do it. This year we were smart. We only picked my friend Sandy's trees and mine. We had a good crew here to help and we were finished by 4:00 in the afternoon. I asked Mindi several times if she was sure that was all the fruit and the answer was always yes. On Friday night when I went out to feed the animals I found a wheel barrow half way full of pomegranates. Dang, that meant I was on my own Saturday morning, where I spent another couple of hours by myself cutting, juicing, straining and cleaning up. It seems like every year it gets harder and harder to do it. My poor parents who at 85 years-old stayed until the very end. They are such an example of hard work and dedication. This was a weird year because none of the younger generation came to help. Usually we have a few of my nieces and daughter-in-laws come and help but Mindi was the only representative of that age group. She is always so good to help her parents and grandparents when the need is there. Trulie played outside for awhile but wanted to go in and watch cartoons. When Mindi went in to check on her, she had poured eight plastic water bottles on the rug in her family room. I don't know if Mindi will live through that girl, she is hard! Now the fun begins as I make jelly from the juice. I'm not making that much this year because when I went in my pantry to pull out all my canning stuff, I found 20 jars of jelly I never gave away from last year. What a waste to throw it away, not only the juice and sugar but also all the time it took me to make it. Oh well, this year I'm going to make sure I give most of it away so it doesn't end up in the garbage.