Even though they signal the waning of summer, we really look forward to the ripening of the Scuppernong grapes. I posted about their wild dark muscadine cousins recently ... (remember? You all spanked me for feeding the dog a grape)
These are domesticated (Frye variety I believe) and wowsers, they are sooo wonderful.
See how big they are?
All grapes are good to me, but these have a fruity aroma and flavor that is hard to describe.
... Like when you eat a ripe mango and the smell is just as pleasurable as the taste.
Here's the results of 10 minutes a'pickin'. They don't keep or ship well, so you may never see these in your produce section if you live far to the north.
I have a bag of them to eat for lunch today.
I'd share, but there's that whole distance thang ...
24 comments:
Oh Wow...they look SO good! I think, if I try real hard, I can smell them in the breeze....
Enjoy them!!
I know those scuppernongs are good. We get them and muscadines in the Georgia grocery stores for a short while.
I have some wild trailing/creeping grape vines at the edge of my woods, and I keep watching them for grapes, to no avail. Do you know if there are vines that look like grape vines but are not?
Well, dang, I kinda like being far from the gators and rattlers and all, but it's a shame about the grapes.
They are really neat looking!
Have a great lunch!
ooh...mah daddy loves them thangs, them and guavas.
Is ya back in skool? First day of class is still a happy memory. I love the smell of jes' sharpened pencils.
Those look SO good! We can solve that distance problem. Maybe you could drop off a bag at the blue rock on Hwy 19? LOL
Mine didn't do well at all this year and they're all a little bitter. I'll have to go up to DeFuniak and buy some to make wine with this year.
I think you better up your production before Thunder & Lightnin get situated down that way. You know he'll have home brew on his mind!
Hope you get more rain out of Gustav but nothing damaging. You'll have a hard time keeping Bear out of the pond when it fills up. That dog is to much.
Bro J
I've never tasted them!
Swampangel,
Sorry these don't grow down there!
SCMomma,
Now which blue rock is that?
:)
Susan,
These grow wild and domestic up there and are practically bulletproof if you have a bit of sunny space in your yard.
Pepper vine looks a little grapey, or you may just have male grape vines nearby.
3C,
You see all the hurricanes, gators, and huge diamondback rattlers are balanced by the good food.
:)
Bro J,
Those two would make homebrew out of onions if there was a way!
Laura,
Now I just can't believe that. This just can't be.
Aunty,
Oops, I skipped ya'.
Sorry about that chief.
Yes, guava jelly ... mmmmm.
We're in the second week of school already!
Lots of pencil shavin goin on.
Hey now...I resemble that remark! But seriously we'd make wine not home-brew...duh!?!
Lightnin
Your scuppernongs get ripe a couple of weeks before ours do. You've got my taste buds all primed for 'em. And don't worry too much about all the "don't feed grapes to dogs" fuss. Hannah (our lab/golden mix) is 14 years old and helps herself to the grapes every year. She's never been sick a day in her life -- except for when the copperhead bit her. Now watch, all those folks are going to yell at me!
Huh...I think there's a natural area in Wisconsin named "scuppernong!"
Lightnin,
LOL! You rascal.
Of course it would be wine, what was I thinking?
Swampy,
Ours will be done when you are just beginning to munch! I think you must be getting some of that good ol'rain stuff finally. Didn't Fay go your way?
DaveC.
Hey, welcome to Pure Florida!
I wonder what the meaning of that word might be?
Mmmmmmmmm... Duller has plans to mow the path to our vines this weekend. Hope the critters left us some.
The grape, as I recall, was named for the river in NC where it was discovered. The name comes form the Algonquin ascopo, which means sweet bay tree. From about.com: Ascupernung, meaning place of the Ascopo, appears on early maps of North Carolina as the name of a river in Washington County that runs into the Albemarle Sound.
FAMU had a scuppernong festival scheduled for last Saturday. I haevn't seen anything about a rain date. But I did find a recipe for scuppernong pie.
3 to 4 cups scuppernongs
Water
1 cup sugar (actually, 2/3 cup is plenty)
2 Tbsps. cornstarch
3 Tbsps. butter
Cinnamon or apple pie spice
Pastry for a two-crust pie
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Wash scuppernongs. Use two medium-size sauce pans — squeeze pulp into one and use the other for grape hulls. Cover hulls with water and cook until tender; drain. Cook pulp until soft enough to run through a sieve to remove seeds. Add to hulls. Mix sugar and cornstarch. Add scuppernong mixture and dot with butter. Sprinkle with spice as desired. Pour into a pastry-lined pie pan and cover with strips of pastry. Bake until top is browned, about 40 minutes.
Serves 6 to 8.
Extra credit points should go to SOPHIEMAE for the book lernin stuff and for creating a drool puddle here with that recipe. I do believe the yield is a mere ONE serving though. Inasmuch as those plum sized grapes look yumptious, I have relinquished myself on the Leftastic Coast to make do with fresh apricots, white peaches, fresh figs, and strawberries. All stuff made better with a blob of Marscapone cheese.
http://www.outerbeaches.com/OuterBanksFolklore
We've got them up here, in Carolina...
http://www.outerbeaches.com/OuterBanksFolklore
You see fruit, I see a raw material for a liquid beverage!
;-)
Surprisingly there is a garlic beer out on the market!
Hey man have you been back by our property to check and see if that vine in the front was actually muscadine? We just can't seem to get dow there at the right time to find out!
I'm with Thunder Dave on this. My first thought was to wonder what the quality of scuppernong wine might be. Loves me some fermentation (bread, cheese, wine beer- you name it).
I guess I should of specified home-made wine instead of using the general catagory home-brew, My Bad?
Sophie,
Sounds good! IF we could stop eating them fresh long enough to process them in some way!!
Freste,
Careful, don't slip in the drip. Your fruit selection sounds pretty good.
Wood duck,
Welcome! I wonder if they grow past Virginia?
ThunderD,
No, I haven't been out that way to check. Good chance it's the wild muscadine tho.
Garlic beer sounds hideous to me.
Doug,
Thunder is a master fermenter so he tends to see things that way.
Anon,
Nah, it wouldn't matter.
I've never had scuppernongs until yesterday. I didn't even know they existed or how their name was even pronounced. Thanks to the internet! I have a very sensitive sense of taste and grew up eating tropical fruits so when I first tasted these, they blew my mind! They look like grapes, but the flavors actually brought back memories of 3 tropical fruits. The soft, ripe green ones reminded me of the fruit "Lanzones", the firm green ones tasted like "Santol", and the ripe, red ones......that one...I couldn't believe it. I 've known that flavor all my life... extremely familiar with it...what is that? Mangoes! That was amazing!
In my family, we try to buy and taste exotic fruits when we come across them. Before the scuppernongs, we had just introduced the dragon fruit to our kid. Our kid said the scuppernongs tasted like bubblegum.
Anon,
Welcome!
That is the neatest description of scuppernong flavor(s).
It is so different from what all other grapes taste like.
Thanks for the comment!
When I was growing up in Baker county we had a few good scuppernog vines that put out quite well in season and we had plenty for eating, canning, jams... good stuff. Definitely different from other grapes but oh so good. Haven't had one since we moved away 10 years ago.
I love them! My family lives in Georgia and when I was a little girl I use to climb the tree and pick a whole bucket full!! lol.. Now, that I'm grown and live in Maryland, we don't see them that often. There is a neighborhood Millers Farm that carries them around the first of August and I always make sure I'm there to get some! I also call them bullets! Thanks for sharing your stories! Tonia
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