Wild Grapes

flgatorguy87 · June 21, 2015

Can anyone confirm my instincts and tell me that these are perfectly fine to eat or make wine out of?

They contain 4 small seeds in each grape.

The fruit......

The foliage....

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joseph · June 21, 2015

Let the grapes get ripe. Taste them. Wine made from them will taste approximately like the ripe grapes. So bad tasting grapes ---> bad tasting wine. I really dislike wines that have a lot of tannins in them. So if it were me, I wouldn't make wine out of high tannin grapes.

Tracydr · June 23, 2015

They're muscadines. I have them wild on my property. Mine are red but they sell the green ones at our produce stand. They're good, although a slightly acquired taste. I don't like muscadine wine at all, but the grapes themselves I like.

**carolyn137** · June 23, 2015

I didn't know there were so MANY different wild grapes and here's a Google search that tells you how to ID them and so much more.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=wild+grapes

Here where I live the most common wild grape, I don't know the species, climbed up tall trees, smothered other stuff with thick vines, ripened up to small purple ones and the taste was atrociously BAD.

Don't laugh but I used them to make grapevine wreaths many years ago. I could be tugging on the vines growing up a tree, they would come loose, and backwards I would fall.

Forgot to say that this was in the Fall when no leaves were left on them which made dragging them back to the shed and removing branches and winding them into wreaths for the Holiday season much easier.

Carolyn

pauldavid · June 23, 2015

Looks like muscadines. Ours are gold colored when ripe. Muscadine wine is good to me. My aunt used to make it in a washtub and squish the grapes with her feet. Gives new meaning to toe jam!

flgatorguy87 · June 23, 2015

So will these ripen to red/purple or are they ready to pick now?

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pauldavid · June 23, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by flgatorguy87

So will these ripen to red/purple or are they ready to pick now?

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They look too green in the photo to pick. They will ripen to either a gold, bronze color or either a purplish hue. It depends on which type of muscadine. Just don't expect a domesticated grape taste, they are kind of astringic tasting. Hard to describe.

PaulF · June 23, 2015

They look like the wild grapes we have around here in Nebraska along the Missouri River. Ours are a wild version of Concord. Back in the early 1900s this area grew more table grapes than almost any other part of the country. The river barges would pull in and load grapes by the boatload. Then California and New York cut the price and the Nebraska market bombed.

The hundreds of acres just in my county of grapes were just let go or turned into corn cropland. In the wild areas the grapes kept growing but returned to their wild state. They are now smaller and less sweet but make great jelly (if you add enough sugar) and the wine is pretty good, too. Our local wineries have planted several varieties that do well here and make some mighty fine wine (to copy a song verse).

Let them ripen, if the birds don't get them first, and see what you can do.

**carolyn137** · June 23, 2015

Just curious, but with all the various species of wild grapes known how can some of you definitely say, for instance, they are muscadines when both purple and green species are known?

And there are other species as well that apparently look just like muscadines at least that's what I was reading when I read some of the links in the Google serach I linked to above.

Carolyn

flgatorguy87 · June 23, 2015

I also wondered if these were originally a domestic variety. The location also has an old pear, apple, and peach tree....the previous owner seemed to enjoy growing fruit.

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Tracydr · June 23, 2015

Actually, you are probably right about them being a bunch grape. I didn't look so close before. Muscadines grow as single grapes, not in bunches. At least the ones I've seen here in NC. I'm not an expert by any means, just have a few purple ones on the property and buy some bronze type at the produce market.

June 21, 2015	#1
flgatorguy87 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2015 Location: Pleasant View, TN Posts: 66	Wild Grapes Can anyone confirm my instincts and tell me that these are perfectly fine to eat or make wine out of? They contain 4 small seeds in each grape. The fruit...... The foliage.... Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

June 23, 2015	#4
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	I didn't know there were so MANY different wild grapes and here's a Google search that tells you how to ID them and so much more. https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=wild+grapes Here where I live the most common wild grape, I don't know the species, climbed up tall trees, smothered other stuff with thick vines, ripened up to small purple ones and the taste was atrociously BAD. Don't laugh but I used them to make grapevine wreaths many years ago. I could be tugging on the vines growing up a tree, they would come loose, and backwards I would fall. Forgot to say that this was in the Fall when no leaves were left on them which made dragging them back to the shed and removing branches and winding them into wreaths for the Holiday season much easier. Carolyn __________________ Carolyn

June 23, 2015	#8
PaulF Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Brownville, Ne Posts: 3,288	They look like the wild grapes we have around here in Nebraska along the Missouri River. Ours are a wild version of Concord. Back in the early 1900s this area grew more table grapes than almost any other part of the country. The river barges would pull in and load grapes by the boatload. Then California and New York cut the price and the Nebraska market bombed. The hundreds of acres just in my county of grapes were just let go or turned into corn cropland. In the wild areas the grapes kept growing but returned to their wild state. They are now smaller and less sweet but make great jelly (if you add enough sugar) and the wine is pretty good, too. Our local wineries have planted several varieties that do well here and make some mighty fine wine (to copy a song verse). Let them ripen, if the birds don't get them first, and see what you can do. __________________ there's two things money can't buy; true love and home grown tomatoes.

June 23, 2015	#9
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	Just curious, but with all the various species of wild grapes known how can some of you definitely say, for instance, they are muscadines when both purple and green species are known? And there are other species as well that apparently look just like muscadines at least that's what I was reading when I read some of the links in the Google serach I linked to above. Carolyn __________________ Carolyn

June 21, 2015	#2
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	Let the grapes get ripe. Taste them. Wine made from them will taste approximately like the ripe grapes. So bad tasting grapes ---> bad tasting wine. I really dislike wines that have a lot of tannins in them. So if it were me, I wouldn't make wine out of high tannin grapes.

June 23, 2015	#3
Tracydr Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2011 Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7 Posts: 3,207	They're muscadines. I have them wild on my property. Mine are red but they sell the green ones at our produce stand. They're good, although a slightly acquired taste. I don't like muscadine wine at all, but the grapes themselves I like.

June 23, 2015	#5
pauldavid Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: NE Louisiana, Zone 8A Posts: 1,179	Looks like muscadines. Ours are gold colored when ripe. Muscadine wine is good to me. My aunt used to make it in a washtub and squish the grapes with her feet. Gives new meaning to toe jam!