I picked wild grapes and apricots today.

Many of the wild grape bunches were rough looking from the drought and probably a fungus that took advantage of stress, lowering the immune system of the vines.



Once the good ones were picked out of the bunches, they looked pretty nice. I make grape juice out of them. They have excellent flavonoids, but lack sugar and water, which are easy to add. They are about like an unsweetened, Welches grape concentrate.


I let the apricots drop to the ground, so I can gather them at peak sugar. I pick them all up and then sort through them. The good ones will get made into fruit leather, dried apricots, jam and canned apricots. I picked up around 25 pounds today. Last year I got a little over 500 pounds and made apricot wine too. This year I'll probably only get around 100 pounds. It's really dry so they are sweeter than last year.



I'm going to save all the apricot pits, cold stratify them and hopefully grow them.

Keith

Do you not have coons and possums there. I would not have got a single apricot off my trees. And I do trap - off and on year round

I do have coons and opposums. I trap them and have very large to large dogs that eliminate them.

Last year, Thea, one of my dogs twice caught opossums and threw them on Diane's ankles, which I found hilarious. No one expects a dog to run out of the dark and throw a live opossum on them.

Keith

Our Buster grabs a possum, you hear bones break and he is only60 pounds and getting old 13 I think. No live possum after he is done......jk

Does anyone else harvest wild grapes?

Keith

Never harvested those "possum" grapes like you have, but, just west of me there are boucou "mustang" grapes. They are a lot like muscadines, but have larger clusters and sweeter. I make jelly and juice with them. Like you said, you must add sugar, but it is better than any store-bought juice I have had.

I harvest wild grapes and they are really small and sweet

I did years ago, but I liked to wait until after the first hard frost.
They really sweeten up then.

The wild grapes stay on well, but the birds and squirrels can be hard on them. I shot a deer one year that had a mouthful of wild grapes.

For making juice, once water and sugar are added, the flavor is at least as good as the domestic grapes I have used. It is more work using wild grapes.

Keith

Oh yeah , more seeds than grape .
But they are sweeter after a hard frost, would pick them even while deer hunting just as a snack.

I just eat wild grapes as I find them too.

Keith

I eat off the vines...mine are sweet.