BITE-SIZED

Muscadine

Muscadines are a sweet treat whether prepared in wine and jellies, or eaten straight off the vine.

text by DOOLEY BERRY

If you are lucky enough to have a wild muscadine vine climbing around your yard, late summer days will make the sweet perfume of their lush, beautiful grapes apparent. Delicious juiced, in jellies, wine or cobblers, this thick-skinned fruit is also a bounty of antioxidants, making it a tasty and healthful snack right from the garden. During the 1600 and 1700s, vine cuttings were produced in Scuppernong, a small town in North Carolina, hence the name.

Muscadines usually taste sweeter than conventional supermarket grapes with a melt-in-your-mouth feel and seeds you simply spit out. Muscadines are usually as sweet as Concord grapes while scuppernongs are slightly less sweet.

Foragers can easily find muscadines in coastal Alabama, where they grow abundantly. MB

WAYS TO ENJOY

Muscadine vines produce native North American grapes indigenous to the southern half of the United States. The individual grapes are much larger than those found in bunch grapes, but grow in pods or bunches with fewer grapes and have a much thicker skin. Our hot and humid climate here in coastal Alabama gives the muscadines a shot of vitamins that helps them thrive.

Muscadines vs. Scuppernongs

With their rather unusual and fun-tosay names, both grapes are similar, but not identical. The muscadine is a native American grape — ‘Vitus rotundifolia’ — found in the southeastern and south-central U.S. while scuppernongs are simply a particular variety of muscadine. So, we can say scuppernongs are indeed muscadines, but not all muscadines are scuppernongs.

Early American settlers noticed the grapes’ similarity to the sweet muscat grapes they knew in Europe and gave the vine the same name, which over time, morphed into muscadine. (muscat vine = muscadine)

The scuppernong is a greenish or bronze muscadine variety that the settlers called “the big white grape.”

!"#$%&'"()"$*'" &'+&(,'&-$%&."/)0 washed, untl ready to eat or use. They will keep for about a week, or freeze $%"*-1'"%)"*-)2" for snacks. !"3*'+4"/4'"$*'" grapes in all kinds of culinary preparatons, including jams, jel0 lies, sorbets, pies, smoothies or as a 2'44'&$"5()'6 • Chop and add the grapes to a Waldorf salad for extra favor or to add distnctve magic to Southern grape jelly meat0 balls. !"7/48-2()'"1()'4" make an excellent fall table garland. The leaves don’t keep long, so cut your vines the day of the event if possible. Once the leaves dry out and fall of, the vines can be saved for years as a festve fall centerpiece or 5&'-$*9

MUSCADINE SORBET !"#$%&''(%)*&#+*%#$%,-% .+/,0*%1)'2%0"*%3456$7 4 cups chilled muscadines 1/3 cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1. Process the grapes and sugar in a food processor or blender for 2 to 3 minutes untl the sugar is completely dissolved and the grape skins are pulverized. 2. Press the mixture through a fne-mesh sieve and dis0 card the solids. 3. Str the grape puree with the lemon juice and freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directons.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

!"#$"%$&'()%*&#$%&#'#(+#,+%&#"&)-$*%$(%*& #).&/)+()%&*0/-+.&1/-&.%2(.%&"/&,%3()& 1/-$&/4)&,#251#$.&'()%1#$.6&70%1& #$%&%#*1&"/&3$/48&#).&"0%($&"0(25&*5()*& ofer natural disease resistance, mean9 ing less chemical sprays. Be sure to include space for a trellis. The sweet $%4#$.*&4(++&,%&4/$"0&("6& :+#)"&2/)"#()%$93$/4)&'()%*&()&%#$+1& fall or winter for fruit that ripens at summer’s end. Mulch the plants with pine straw or shredded pine bark to preserve moisture and discourage weeds.

The vines prefer full to mostly sun and "0%1&)%%.&3//.&()"%$)#+&.$#()#3%&"/& make the best and tastest grapes. Cultvars you might consider are Nesbit, Noble or Regale (black/ purple varietes) or Carlos, Doreen or Magnolia (bronze varietes).

The vines can be found growing wild and, if conditons are right, can become invasive. Constant monitoring (*&)%2%**#$1&#).&%;2%**&3$/4"0&2#)&,%& controlled by pruning at soil level or treatng with herbicides.

If growing your own is not your thing, you can sometmes purchase muscadines at area farmers’ markets or, maybe, hanging around your neighbor’s backyard.

Dooley Berry is a Baldwin County writer, cook and gardener who writes for various lifestyle and gardening magazines.