Grapes

[karlinann]

I wanted to talk to you about Scuppernong grapes. Have you ever had them? They come in black and green. They are both really good table grapes and they sell them at the farmer's markets down here in the fall.

I have grown the green variety in years past and now I have the black, (dark purple) variety. I had some last fall and they were mighty delicious. I knew I would be adding them to my garden.

I have one vine and it will probably not produce until the 3rd year. I'm really looking forward to enjoying those.

[JoS]

I have never tasted that type of grape. I have a concord grape vine and it is loaded this year. I plan to make jelly with them, though it sounds like a daunting job as canning is difficult for me.....can't lift heavy pots of water, etc. I think I will do some searching. I have seen where you can can fruits in the oven....wonder if you can do jelly that way????

[Nalani]

I remember when I was a kid my mother brought home grapes that you would just pop unto your mouth but not eat the skin. They were dark but have no idea what they were called. In those days I don't think they had seedless grapes.

[Kayce]

Here in Alabama the dark purple ones are called Muscadine, and they grow wild. The Green ones are called Scuppernongs.Those you can grow successfully At home etc. My Late FIL used to go to the woods etc and pick the muscadines, and he had his own scuppernogs @ home.I and my Late MIl have made jam/jelly with both.. Personally I don't like the taste of either of them. , Now I have a DIL who could probably eat her weight in muscadines... I noticed that some of the farmers now pick and sell them @ market. I was @ farmers market this morning, found several booths were ladies had made jam/ jelly .

Nalani, we didn't eat the skins on these grapes either. maybe what you had as a kid.

[Nalani]

Could be, Kayce. Can they just be sqirted in your mouth by squeezing the skins?

[Kayce]

yes, that's how they eat them.

[karlinann]

correction

OMG, I meant Scuppernong and not Muscadine. I don't know where that came from. Sorry. Yes, some people don't eat the skins, but they are edible. I just consider it more roughage.

JoS, I used to have the Concord grapes and I made a batch of jelly, but it was difficult to get the seeds out and it didn't turn out the way I wanted. I didn't have anybody to help me squeeze the pulp through a cheesecloth. That's how my mom always made it. It's hard work to can anything. Good luck and hope you have success.

[JoGee]

I never had those grapes. Often the produce people don't even put the names on the grapes...
My very favorite eating grape is the Concord. They sold some here once with the name Concord, but there was no good taste to them - they were not Concords!

[BarbCA]

There are wild grapes that grow up the trees here but I have never eaten any as the birds always get them first.

I have a grape arbor on the west side of the house and another on the south side. This year the northern one is burgeoning. They're Thomson seedless so not a good jelly grape. The few that we get from the other are Lady Fingers but they don't get enough sun due to the trees. I don't see any on that one yet.
On the back side of the garden fence there are some purple ones that are very tasty but no one will eat them but me. They aren't Concord because I don't care for them and I do like these.

[spring]

We have concord grapes here...my favorite! Many people in my area grow grapes.

Also, we have several winerys here and the Bluy Sky winery makes the best concord wine I've ever tasted.
We also have a winery that makes apple wine...and a winery that makes peach wine.
We have many many winerys...Alto Pass Vineards, Star View winery, Hartland Vineards, Owl Creek Vineards... and some I can't remember names of. The one's I've mentioned are all delicious.

[JoGee]

We have wineries here. The soil conditions, we are told, are like those in France wine country, and our wines vie with California's, too. There are blue ribbon wines from here.

I go to World Market if we need wine, where there is a huge selection. In the far corner are some wines that have tall angels painted on the bottles. Those are very low alcohol or alcohol-free wines. They have this mild apricot wine.... mmmmmmm.

My parents drank only Mogan David wines. One day I brought my Mom a bottle of Cherry wine. The box had a picture of a Dutch girl on it. Mom loved cherries, the it was a full-bodied cherry wine. I had never seen her tipsy before, but one glass made her silly! Then she hid the bottle, wherever she kept stuff she treasured.

In England, some guy made homemade wines from everything. Fruits, veggies, flowers, and unusual plants. I remember the beet wine was wonderful (I have always loved beets), the next one tasted like weeds, but the flower wine wasn't bad.

My uncle made an unusual wine. He started out making beer. Perfected it. Then switched to making Root Beer. You'd never have believed from the taste it was alcoholic. But it was the most excellent root beer. He gave us a tall glass each. Asked if we wanted seconds, we did, til we tried to stand up. His recipe died with him, unfortunately.

[Nalani]

We had a friend who made wine and boy did they give me a headache. We also had one of his wines in our wine rack and one night the cork or top came off and it squirted all over the kitchen. What a mess. After that when he gave us a bottle, we would thank him, and then pour it out in the sink. No telling what it did to the septic tank.

[JoGee]

It probably killed a bunch of germs and bacteria after cleaning the drain!

[JoS]

Believe it or not, we have vinyards and wineries around here, too. I'm not a wine drinker, but one of them makes a champagne that I really like. I don't drink, but I have tasted it and it is really good.