wild grapes

[chris_h]

night before last out walking my dog and i noticed the wild grapes growing in a tree were ripe and ready to harvest
not a whole lot but each one of these has alot more flavor then the regular grapes.
no idea yet on what ill make them into so ill probly vac pac and freeze for later use.

[barkonbutts]

I'v seen a bunch of wilg grape vines...but never fruit... nice find! I say grape juice!

[chris_h]

not really a veggy all i have here would probly produce a 1/4 cup of juice, call it a concentrate by the hands of mother nature and not mankind, one other is wild strawberries there small to but blow your mind away on the flavor.

[dsgarner06]

If it was me, I'd turn it into grape jelly... :) I have 4 grape vines in my yard (2 Pinot Noir and 2 Zinfandel) that the mrs makes into grape jelly every year.

[Bearcarver]

They must be different than the "Wild Grapes" we have around here. They call these "Fox Grapes", and they are disgustingly Bitter!!! We always wondered how a Fox could eat them.


Bear

[Snarlingiron]

Around here we have lots and lots of muscadine grapes growing wild. They ain't much to eat, because it is so bloody hot and dry they are usually kind of leathery and dry. However, they are really sweet. Folks around here call them Mustang grapes. I looked it up and Iowa doesn't show up in the natural range for muscadines, but what does Wikipedia know? Folks round these parts make jelly (really good) and wine out of them. About 25 years ago, we went out and gathered up about 40 pounds of them and made a batch of wine. We didn't leave the skins in the must for very long, and ended up with a sort of Rose. It was slightly sweet and really delicious. If it weren't so bloody hot and there wasn't a damned rattle snake under every vine I would go out and do it again.

[RowdyRay]

Just make sure they're real wild grapes. We have them around here too, but have to beat the birds to them. They'll work in any other recipe you have for grapes. Jellies, jams, pie...whatever. But, there is another berry that looks very similar. Poisonous. Birds won't even eat them. One of the reasons folks don't see many real wild grapes, is because the birds get to them first. Just a heads up. Grapes freeze very well. We've picked many wild ones, and have lots of Concords growing. Be careful Vac'ing them. They freeze best whole.

Wild strawberries are awesome. Very small, and ten times the flavor of any other. Growing up, we had a huge strawberry patch. But we had our own private patch out in the woods. Never told the adults. Took a couple minutes to pick a handful, but worth every second.

[chris_h]

these are the real deal, my first encounter with them was 1977-78 i was 11-12yrs old and we moved from the big city to the country and they veined up into this treeline maby 50 or so yrds long all the way to the top of the trees and i climbed all over those trees collecting the grapes, i know the bad berries that your talking about and they grow more on a bush and turn redish in color if its the same thing that your talking about, wont kill but you cant spit enough to get that taste out of your mouth.

crap time got away on me here ill comment more later.

[Ruben Avina]

They must be different than the "Wild Grapes" we have around here. They call these "Fox Grapes", and they are disgustingly Bitter!!! We always wondered how a Fox could eat them.


Bear

If fox could reach them or eat the grapes then they would not be ripen to offer sweet taste for humans .
I never eat wild grapes and dont know that whether they are sweet like regular graper or some bitter in taste.
If they are sweet then make its juice and if they are some bitter in taste then make its jam.

[L20A]

We used to dry them in the jerky maker. They make good snacks.