Thought this was worth sharing-

I've never really been much of a wine conner-sewer, but I came across a recipe for homemade wine that's really easy. My Momma made the best wine i've ever tasted, better than anything that came from the store. She made it in the big stone crocks from grapes, cherries, dandelions...I don't know what else, if anything, I always liked the grape best.

But anyway, she sent me a recipe this week for homemade wine and all you need is an empty plastic milk jug. I used my one gallon water jug that I take with me in the truck-it's just like Dozer's-instead of a milk jug. I've got grapes growing in the back yard and around the edge of the woods here. I thought they were wild grapes, but after doing some research, and making Jo eat some first to make sure they weren't poisonous, I found they were called Muscadine grapes. They are the sweetest and "grapiest" tasting grapes I ever tasted, but they were kind of "chewy" and had lots of seeds in them. They were delicious, but not too good to eat. So that's where the wine comes in-

you just put the grapes in a milk jug, or a water jug-mine's about 2/3 full.

mash the grapes with a wooden spoon or something-my "wild" ones were hard to mash, so I mashed them in a bowl with a soup ladle first, then put them in the jug.

Add just enough water to cover them.

Place a cover (loosely!) over the jug and allow to ferment for around 4 days. Then strain the juice in small amounts, discarding the pulp.

Add 3 pounds of sugar for each gallon of juice-(time to start tasting, this sounds like a lot of sugar to me!)

Cover (loosely!) and let ferment for 10 days, or until fermentation stops.

Bottle with a loose top and put in a cool place.

This was my great-grandfather's recipe. He said "churn" instead of milk jug, but it still works. Ma added this-

"After the first straining I put the juice in another milk jug, add the sugar and put a balloon on the jug. It'll work for about a week. Then strain again, but leave all the thick mess in the jug-don't strain it. Taste to see if it's sweet enough-if not, add sugar. Let sit in balloon covered jug about another week.

Strain through about 4 layers of cheesecloth, then bottle. Top with balloon again until it's not working anymore, then cork."

I've got mine in the water jug now! I never knew making wine was so simple-probably a good thing, or I might be face down in a back alley in the bad part of Gladys now!