The Harvest
The fall harvest was coming to an end. Michael and I had bottled peaches, pears, applesauce, cherry pie filling, apple pie filling and peach pie filling leaving only a little space on our food storage shelves. I was very satisfied, actually, I was very proud with the gleaming display of fruits to enjoy through the coming months until fresh produce was available again.
It was now time to focus on other opportunities and projects...you know me I always have something new going on. It so happened that the annual women’s conference was coming right up and since I had finished all my work (the canning projects) I had the time to attend. So off I went and found the conference both inspiring and fun. Mingling with other women, catching up on the new -news, sharpening skills as we participated in service projects and learning from presenters as they told their faith promoting stories, were filling the reservoirs of my soul for the winter months ahead.
When I returned home that day, look what I saw…
While I was away at the conference, Michael had picked the grapes, washed the grapes, steamed the grapes, poured the boiling grape juice into sterilized bottles, (not sure where the bottles came from since I thought we had already filled them all) processed the jars of grape juice in a water bath and then placed all 30+bottles on the counter!
I was stunned and immediately had to take a picture! Gorgeous bottles of sugar free...isn’t he cleaver...grape juice filled the remaining shelves. What a surprise!
The best part was that the kitchen was sparkling clean...isn’t he sweet!
Lest you think I failed to thank him properly, before I took the picture there were hugs and kisses all around. It was hard to know which one of us was the happiest, me for the work that was done for me or him for creating the selfless surprise.
There was a little bit of method to his madness, now I can prepare his favorite Grape Wassil on demand. My friend shared the recipe with me many years ago. Thank you Becky for being the inspiration for this surprise.
You might want to try the Grape Wassil at your next gathering. Click here for the recipe.