Our First Muscadine Harvest

We've always been offered grapes from our neighbor's yard.  They have Concord grapes along with two other varieties.  The vines have been there for a while and are as big around as your wrists.  We've made New Wine and jelly from the fruit we've gathered from their vines.  We enjoyed it so much that we decided we'd plant our own vines.  Russ brought us home a Muscadine vine that he purchased from the nursery that he works at.  Muscadines are a grape variety that grows wild in the woods around here.

We planted the vine in the side yard where we planted the corn this year and honestly the vine did not grow as quickly as I expected it to.  The soil is a little weak in this area and I'll do my best to add organic matter and chicken litter to build it up over the next few years.  We were able to get a harvest, albeit small, from the vines.  They are so plump and warmed by the sun.  The flavor is soooo good and sweet.  There are a few seeds in them, but it's not a big deal to spit them out.

Our First Muscadine Harvest

I built a simple trellis with an eight foot portion of a hog panel and two T-posts and the vine started to grow on it a little bit.  I expect by next year this entire panel to be filled.  Benjamin was the muscadine picker and searched among the leaves for those darkened, flavorful grapes.  I'm thinking next year I'll need to put some netting over it because the birds like the grapes as much as we do!

Our mini vineyard

New growth can be seen on the vines due to the plentiful rains and favorable growing season, giving me hope that this will be a good place for the muscadine to be planted for great harvests in years to come.  As it vines it sends out tendrils that wrap around the panels, giving support to the weight of the vine and clusters of fruit.

New growth on the muscadine vine

Here is a portion of the harvest and we've got about two times this amount still ripening on the vines.  We'll likely just snack on these. 

A bowl of muscadines for snacking on

The yield is not going to be enough to make new wine or jelly this year, but that's okay.  We're patient.