Purple Ink from Concord Grapes

 

Concord Grape Ink

One of the sellers at Farmer's Market this week had a luscious box of concord grapes.  I thought it would be perfect for making a purple or blue ink.

I used this recipe from Ruth Siddall.  

I also consulted Jason Logan's recipe in Make Ink: A Forager's Guide to Natural Ink Making.  Here is a version of Jason's recipe for wild grape ink.  The recipe seems deceptively simple -- no extra vinegar, salt or other mordants to make purple.  

 I added about 1/2 cup of water and set the grapes to simmer.  When the water got hot enough to bubble, you could start to see the grape skins pop off, leaving naked grapes behind.  The color is in the skins!  At that point, I mashed them to extract more of the goodness out of them.

 

After 10 minutes, it looked like this.  You don't want to overcook this mash, or I think it gets too thick to use.  You may be moving on into jelly / jam - making territory by then. 

 

Here are the leftover solids that were strained off.  

I did not bother to remove the grapes from the stems. 

There was quite a bit of pulp that I could not push through the strainer / coffee filter (not pictured).  It seemed like a liquid, but was a bit thicker.  Is that pectin?  Is that why you aren't supposed to over simmer this ink? Otherwise the pectins would make it all gummy?  That's just my conjecture ...

 

I always like to get a shot of the color left in the pan, knowing that this may not necessarily be the final color. 

 

Here it is after it dried a bit.  I like that deep, rich grape color on the left side.

 

I used a small canning-type jar, which I boiled ahead of time, as you would for canning and preserving food.   I also added a clove as a preservative.

This ink is essentially fresh grape juice, and won't keep for long.   I added a clove to the jar for preservation sake.  This one should also be kept in the fridge.

 It makes me wonder if you can use red wine for ink?

 I thought this was an interesting shot during the cleanup.  The ink color in the jar is more of what you see on the plate -- more magenta.  When I started to wash up, the remnants in the jar turned a bluer purple.  Not sure if that was a result of the soap hitting it or the "fresh" tap water changing the ph?

What happens if I add a drop of Dawn dish soap to the ink?  Would it turn more violet?

 

 

This one is sort of an "action" shot showing how the ink changes colors as it dries.

It's pretty amazing to see these "living" inks in doing their thing!

It doesn't show in this photo, but there are some sparkles in that grape-y field.  The sugars in the grape juice crystalize and sparkle in direct sunlight.

The colors change according to how fast they dry -- If they dry before they finish oxidizing, that's the color they will stay.

This one is Concord grape with a little sap green mixed in.

 

 Gum Arabic Syrup

Ruth's recipe above called for 1/2 teaspoon of liquid gum arabic.  Several years ago, I purchased a whole bag of powdered gum arabic.  Sometimes it's a challenge to get the powder to dissolve in the fresh ink--although it was pretty easy in the still hot grape juice.  So on this glorious Sunday morning, I made a batch of liquid gum arabic / gum arabic syrup using this recipe from Melissa Mary Jenkins.

Melissa Mary Jenkins offers a recipe to make Gum Arabic Syrup:

Directions to make Gum Arabic Syrup:

TIME: 2-3 hours

-heat ¼ cup of distilled water in a small pot to a near-boil (about 3 minutes)

-measure out 4 Tbsp of gum arabic powder in a small glass jar and slowly stir in the water. Continue to stir until all of the powder is integrated (you may have some small white clumps).

-let the mixture sit for 2 to 3 hours.

-when the mixture appears more like a gel, stir again to smooth out the mixture. (It is ok if there is a small layer of white foam.)

-skim off small clumps or foam. When not in use, store in the refrigerator for up to 5 months.

This is one of those things that is so simple to make, I wonder why I never did it sooner?  The only thing I did differently was to put the jar into a small pan of boiling water (sort of like a double boiler) in order to melt the last few clumps of gum arabic.