Still picking. It is about time for the grands and I to learn how to make grape jelly. Southern Home is a good muscadine but not the best but it makes a huge crop. As of this morning I have picked 7.4 gallons or estimated 42.5 pounds. Guessing there are about 4 more gallons on the vine.
That is incredible. With the grape jam taste like Welches? Or Concord? Or better?
Itās different than regular grape jelly. A little more tart. I really like it! Iāve made 34 half pints and have another batch in the fridge to cook off. Guess what gifts will be given for Christmas?
Katy
The peels are needed to provide pectin, color, and flavor to the jelly. This works best with black varieties but can also be used with bronze muscadines.
Pick 2 to 3 gallons of grapes. Wash them, then squeeze them out into a colander so the pulp and seed are left in the colander. Put the peels/hulls into a pan. When the juice has drained off of the pulp and seed, pour it over the hulls. Cook the peels on low stirring often until they have boiled about 10 minutes. This will soften the peels. Now put the clean colander over a pan to make jelly (a 6 quart works for small batches), and pour the peels and juice into the colander. Use a potato masher to squeeze the juice and pulp out of the peels. when finished, the peels will be about half or a bit less the volume with which they started. Now you have juice to make jelly. I prefer to use fruit pectin and follow the recipe provided for grape jelly.
Iām averaging about 120 pounds of grapes per vine from Ison. Darlene is a fantastically good muscadine, but production is ridiculously low. Iāve decided I like Ison, Big Red, and Supreme best of the varieties I currently have growing.
These are from two vines my father planted about 15 years agoāIām not sure on the varieties. I really like the bronze ones, which are extremely sweet with a slight honey-like flavor. We slacked this past winter and no pruning was done. The good part was the vines produced enormous grapes.
I have 10 or so varieties that Iāve been babying in pots for the last yearāthey were bare-root purchases this past winter. I plan to get them in the ground once things cool off. I have a couple hundred feet of cattle panels that would look better in green.
Those bronze one do look like they would be delicious.
My muscadine picking is nearing the end for this year. At my location and most of the surrounding states they thrive with a minimal of care. The bulk of the work is pruning and picking with an occasional watering. This vine was planted June of 2015 and it was only about 24 inches long at the time. Let me assure you it has thrived in spite of my neglect. I know that many growers get 100 pounds per vine but I was very happy with the 60 pounds from this vine. Southern Home is an aggressive vine with a good taste but it actually looks like it could use a little down time to recover. Looking forward to what I consider even better varieties that I have planted to catch up.
I love muscadineā¦I am planting a wide variety in hopes of extending my season. Here is what I got last winter as bare-root: Supreme Muscadine, Darlene Muscadine, Fry Muscadine, 15-1-1 āNEWā Muscadine, Pam Muscadine, Carlos Muscadine, Dixie Red Muscadine, Lane Muscadine, Late Fry Muscadine, Hall Muscadine, Pineapple Muscadine, and Ison Muscadine. These beauties have exploded in their pots.
According to Dr. Patrick Conner for commercial production, there are a few things to keep in mind.
-
āRed varietiesā are more resistant to fungal problemsāfor me, Iāve never seen any issues with the bronze ones??
-
Self-fertile varieties are heavier producersāIām not sure on the specifics, but this could be a good thing. Seems like muscadine produce a lot anyway? I may be missing something. I hear a lot of talk about thinning? I know the small clusters are an issue with harvesting.
-
Customers want a less āsnottyā muscadine. Hey, I like the snot and to spit.
-
There was a lot of talk about a ādry scarā, but I was distracted at the time.
Hopefully, I didnāt mess up his bulleted list too bad.
PC got a lot right, but also a few things wrong. He downplays Ison as having a potential problem with cold tolerance. This is incorrect. I grow Ison with zero issues from cold here in North Alabama. What Ison can do is overload after which it does not go dormant properly therefore it can be killed in a cold winter after overbearing the previous summer. The way to control this is to prune heavily each winter and fertilize heavily in spring and summer to maintain vine health. Pruning to 2 buds reduces fruit load to an acceptable level to prevent severe overbearing. It also helps with maintaining fruit size since an overloaded plant tends to make a lot of undersize grapes.
Re varieties, please look into Summit, Lane, and Paulk. I love the flavor of Darlene, but production is ridiculously low.
I have several of those varieties and love a lot of them. My favorite black is Supreme with Lane a close second (and itās self fertile). My favorite bronze is Triumph (self fertile). I have a second year Darlene that bore two (yes, 2) fruits this year that were good but I havenāt tasted any bronze that is better to me than Triumph. It has a complex āwineyā taste and very sweet. These were my last ones to ājellyā this year.
Katy
Wish I had planted a Triumph. It sounds like a great one.
I bought it on a whim, unlabeled. When I was trying to decide what to do with it I ended up buying a lot more. This one has always been my favorite and I suspected Triumph or Darlene but having purchased another Triumph I now know that is what it is. Fantastic taste and I donāt know why I donāt see many others talking about it. Itās a different tasteā¦maybe it just appeals to me but itās now just sweetā¦unique flavor. Jelly is great tasting too. I have three now on the wire and two others that came up from roots of purchases that didnāt make it. I donāt know if these little ones will make it through the winter or not.
Katy
Most all the newer varieties are good so I would say if you like it keep it. My top choices are Black Beauty, Lane, and Supreme. I just added Hall which I havenāt tasted yet but it is rated to have a high level of dry scar.
I have been told that Supreme sometimes suffers die back from cold weather north of Birmingham but Iām starting to think that the problem is more related to overbearing as you described. Isonās videos describe the problems with overbearing varieties.
Hate to be a one upper but my two year old out performed yours by 100% with 4 fruit. Hopefully next year it will set more, my Late Fry produced a lot. Your fruit in the picture look flawless, my Late Fry taste great but wonāt win any beauty contest.
Oh man, Iām not sure I can handle thatā¦
I had a lot of ugly fruit above the leaf line. The drought and sun this year were brutal. My Fry had a lot of burnt uglies but most of the Triumph were well protected by the vine. And besidesā¦Iām not going to show pictures of the ugly ones!!! Lol
Correct. I let a Supreme overbear 2 years ago and it died during the next winter. I know exactly how to prevent it, but did not do a thorough job of pruning the winter before.
I enjoyed my triumph too, set fruit its first year.
I didnāt get a Triumph because of a video i watched by Kenny saying Hall and Triumph tasted the same so i went with Hall.