Before leaving New Brunswick 24 years ago, I don’t recall seeing wild grapes. While clearing trees and scrub on CA’s property over the past summer, I found many large vines growing. I considered them a nuisance, as they were strangling the trees and difficult to pull out. When the clusters of fruit started appearing, I realized what they were.
In early September, we spent an evening harvesting wild grapes from an accessible patch.
After the grapes were cleaned and sorted , CA made a small batch of delicious jelly.
She also started the fermentation process for vinegar (left) and wine (right).
The wine did not turn out well. (We may try again next year.)
However, we were rewarded with a 750 ml jar of a very nice vinegar.
Check out the Forager | Chef‘s instructions for making vinegar from fruit scraps.
Looking forward, we will do some research on how we might to ‘train’ the vines to produce a more accessible harvest.