They were picked a little underripe, due to SWD, so I thought I would make jam.

I checked the NCHFP site, and found this:

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/grape_jam_without_pectin.html

These grapes are seedless, so I figured I could skip skinning them and adding the skins back in. I started to strip them off the stems, but their tiny side-stems were staying on the grapes. I didn't want to hand pick them off every grape, so I figured i would cook first and then skim.

Then I thought, if I have to skim out tiny stems, why not big ones? So I just threw the whole bunches in the pot. Which is working well -- as they cook, the grapes come off and their tiny sub-stems stay on the main one.

Now I go to taste my jam. I always find grapes a little astringent irritating to my throat, but zowie! This is really bad!! Is it due to the stems? Is the jam ruined? Is there anything i can do to fix it? Or is it normal grape jam and I am just allergic or something?

Thanks for your help. Clearly I should have come here first. My throat hurts :(.

And when I think what it's like to accidentally bite into a grape stem, I can't believe I was so foolish. But you know, we eat the grapes, and the leaves, and the baby stems, and I just did not think.

Reading up on tannin poisoning, I hope I have not done too much damage to my kidneys and liver :(. I am drinking a lot of water and will be up all night peeing. I am nauseous but, perhaps unfortunately, not actually throwing up. And my throat is swollen and sore.

I don't know of any way to salvage the jam at this point. Just stems can taint the flavor of a preserve, and once that happens there's no way to go back.

But it's hard to imagine just tasting it you could possibly have ingested enough to do long-term damage. Temporary discomfort, maybe.

Carol

Yeah, I was really surprised at the strength of the response to just a spoonful. I drank half a gallon of water and took some stuff to coat my stomach, and that helped some with the nausea. My throat is still swollen. What a shame about the grapes, but I am sure not going to taste that stuff again!

I don't know what the heck happened. It's been sitting in my (broken) fridge for a couple days while I dealt with other stuff.

I pulled it out today, to throw it in the trash. Just as one last chance, and because I was so sad to lose this jam, I asked a brave friend to take a tiny taste. I was afraid to.

He said it was fine, and took a big spoonful -- which I would have stopped him from doing if I had seen him! That was ok too, though. So I tasted one grape worth. Hard to tell with my throat still sore from the other day, but seemed alright. Got another friend to taste it. We all agree it is delicious and non-fatal.

So I don't know what the heck happened! The jam had cooked more, in its own heat, after I had my mishap with it and before it was cool enough to go in the fridge. Maybe that fixed it?

Or, one of my friends suggested, maybe there was some sort of bug in the bite that messed me up? I would think I would have seen, felt, or tasted a bug, but I guess you never know.

Anyway, I am VERY happy to have my grape jam after all. And rather surprised it did not ferment in the 50 degree fridge.

I would have expected the stems to have given an 'off' taste.

Liver and kidneys can repair themselves quite quickly if we just give them a good chance. I've had to have blood work because my liver enzymes were high. Within a week, they were back to normal. No produced foods and lots of water. So I'm back to as natural as possible.

Thanks very much for the reassurance re: liver and kidneys :). I have some health issues, so I worry. But I did not get diarrhea, which I figured was a good sign that I was not too messed up.

Is it because I added sweetener (honey) that it did not ferment? That was why I did it -- at that point I had not tasted the jam and hurt myself yet, but I knew I would have to leave the jam overnight and that the fridge was not trustworthy. I hoped to preserve it a bit.

I was, as you can see from the results, too tired to continue canning responsibly that night.

Carol