Every year we have the pleasure of picking our own grapes. These grape vines were old when I moved to this farm, and that was nearly 40 years ago. Today they are doing better than ever and they give us an annual treat in late August/early September.
This year I wasn’t able to be there for picking because I was committed elsewhere. Normally that means we’d just wait for another day but we were leaving to go out of town so SWMBO and the kids took time off from school and instead picked grapes. The only thing I did to help was to remind the kids of the one and only rule of grape picking, which they all knew off the top of their head, “One for the basket, one for your mouth!”
All the grapes were waiting for me in the kitchen when I got back. As usual, I juiced all the grapes and made pulpy muscadine grape juice which is our house favorite. We carry crystal clear grape juice in the store, but the stuff we make ourselves has a lot more body to it. We only get it once per year and it’s a real treat.
This year we produced about 3 gallons of juice. As usual, it didn’t last long.