Grapes!

We have grapes. I have no idea what kind. I assumed table grapes, but they are a little seedy. So, are they wine grapes? I don't know. They are very tart. The wonderful husband climbed a ladder and picked bunches and bunches from where they hung. I brought the grapes to my mother's house, fully prepared to make grape jelly there while she corralled the children. She, of course, took over and made the jelly herself. Five cups of prepared juice, seven cups of sugar and one box of pectin later, we've got jelly. The boys and I had soynut butter and grape jelly sandwiches today. We loved it. It tasted nothing like store bought grape jelly. It tasted nothing like grapes. It was still tart and reminded me of cranberry sauce from a can. I don't really know what to think about that...

The husband mentioned something about taming the vines, creating a trellis or something and harvesting them. So, of course, off I go on the world wide web. Search, search, search. All the pictures of grapes were professional photos or photos of beautiful grapes. For some reason I was unable to find pictures of "wild" grapes that were poorly taken care of because someone just moved in and didn't really know much about them. Well, I became informed. Sort of. I found out that I should "Prune the vine so you will maintain a balance between vegetative growth and fruit productions. Where a vine is underpruned, (too many buds left) the vine will produce many small clusters of small grapes that may fail to ripen properly. If the vine is overpruned, (too few buds left) the yield will be low and the vegetative growth excessive. To "balance prune" a vine, the number or buds left is adjusted according to the amount of one-year-old wood removed in pruning." This is probably why the grapes are so small. This site also says to prune in the dormant season - March. But, in my eagerness to have bountiful grapes, I went out today and cut back all the pricky bushes surrounding the vines, cut back all the dead leaves, vines, branches and grapes and I'm pretty sure I annoyed the husband. "It's for the vineyard", I said. I got a raised eyebrow and then watched the back of his head shake.

He'll see next year when I'm selling jugs of wine by the side of the road, making my millions...