We have wild grapes!

I really didn't think we'd get any wild grapes this year.  This year's drought seemed worse than last year, but the grapes survived!  Since we didn't get to harvest any grapes last year, that meant no grape jelly for 2011.  I had to ration the 2010 batch which wasn't much fun.

The grapes seemed ripe for the pick'n this weekend, so I spent several hours picking clusters and plucking the tiny fruits from the stems.  There were three grape vines right by the house so I focused my time on gathering them.  There was, however, a vine right up the road in the ditch that had the biggest grapes on them I've ever seen in a wild grape:

My puny grapes on the left, Monster-Ditch-Grapes on the right.

I managed to snag about a dozen of those puppies and brought them home.  They almost look like table grapes!  I bit into one.  Most definitely not a fresh-eat'n grape.  Very tart, but oh so grapey!

I'm thinking I may take a cutting of that particular vine this fall and try propagating it.  I mean, can you imagine how much jelly / juice / wine I could make with those babies??

Anywho, there are still tons of grapes left on the vines here at home. Unfortunately most of them are like 30' up in the air.  Those suckers really like to climb.  My grape-picking height is restricted now to my reach while standing in the bed of the truck with a step stool (if you just so happen to be my homeowners insurance agent, please disregard that last sentence).  If I'm ambitious enough, I'd like to start pruning and training those vines lower to the ground for easier harvesting.  I just hope I don't kill the vines in the process.

I picked a total of two gallons of grapes this weekend.  It doesn't seem like a lot, but it was pretty time consuming.  I'd really like to get my bum back out there and pick at least another two gallons.

Tomorrow I'll be spending most of the morning processing the grapes into juice.  When I've got a good amount, I'll make the juice into jelly.  Stay tuned for juice and jelly pictures!