When I moved here in July of 2016, it was hot and dry. There were no plants and only a few mature trees. However, I did take note of 2 scrubby grape vines. They were spread out over about 2 feet of dead ground behind the propane tank.
To my surprise, these scrappy little vines survived the winter, so in 2017, I started watering them. I also weeded all around them. Well, that was a bad idea. Not the watering part, but the weeding part. Whatever grapes may have grown were quickly eaten by who knows what because there were no sticky weeds to keep anyone out.
So, this year, in my novice grape growing experiment, I was way too busy to pay attention so I neglected to water them and I didn’t weed them.
Hmmm. Seems like not watering and not weeding was the best plan yet because this year … I just happened to put on some gloves and push aside some of the grape leaves to discover A PLETHORA OF GRAPES! I mean A LOT for 2 little vines. I picked 2 feed buckets full last week and 1 bucket just today. I could have picked more but I don’t know what to do with all of the grapes I’ve harvested!
This is awesome!
MY PHOTO JOURNAL
These are the two vines. I did nothing for them this year. I didn’t water them or weed them. Also, clearly, they are on the ground… they have not been staked or trained.
But I put on gloves and dove my hand in under the large leaves, spider webs and prickly weeds, to find grapes!
I have no idea what type of grapes. They have seeds. A friend thought they were madera grapes…
My harvest this morning. I had double this amount last week.
Kitty wanted to help.
Last week, I gave the two big buckets of grapes to my neighbor who has a cold pressing machine. She made lovely white grape juice.
A LITTLE SIDE NOTE…
I’m one of those people who buys grapes from the store and half the time I’m disappointed. I like them not mushy. Most of the time, I get them home and they go bad in a day or two.
Well, what I noticed with the grapes I picked last week… not only did they have seeds, but they lasted 10 days. I didn’t wash them until I wanted to eat them. But, they lasted FAR LONGER than market grapes.
So, made me wonder how long it takes for table grapes to get to our markets…
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528
I didn’t know!
Wow! That is impressive. Beautiful end result. You know you can always wash and freeze the grapes. Then when ever you want you can snack on them. Jeannie Mc
Dawn,
This is wonderful!
They look just delicious!
The juice looks inviting too!
Laurie