Growing, Preserving and Using Grapes

Why should you bother with grapes?

Once you have tasted your own home grown grapes you will never want to eat those travesties of taste – supermarket grapes that have been kept in cold storage for months and months.  You will look forward to autumn with eager anticipation.  Like cherries, grapes are only worth eating fresh in season or preserved straight from the vine or, of course, turned into alcohol.

Growing Grapes

Most table grapes such as Thompson Seedless are varieties of the European grape Vitis vinifera which do best in warm, dry summers.  American grape (Vitis labrusca) varieties such as Golden Muscat are more resistant to mildew and fungal rot. 

Chose a sunny spot to plant a vine or the grapes will never ripen.  Provide a trellis or wires for support according to growth habit of your grape.  Give the grapes plenty of room to grow, about two metres between plants. 

Prune back excessive growth to ensure sunshine reaches all the leaves and developing bunches and to let air circulate to reduce fungal disease.  You can remove some bunches if your grape is overbearing.  Keep the grape vines well watered until the grapes start to colour then leave off. 

Every winter remove around 90% to 95% of growth according to the variety of grapes.  Different varieties have different pruning needs but all need to be pruned severely every year.  With sultana grapes, for example, it is best to prune back to 10 buds rather than two or three.

Harvesting

Table grapes do not become sweeter once they are picked so make sure they are ripe before you pick them unless a frost is threatened.  Also watch out for birds, ants and other pests that think your grapes are a great food supply.

Cooking and Preserving Grapes

Verjuice                                                                     

Sometimes grapes don’t fully ripen before the cold weather sets in.  Fear not, you can turn your bucket loads of unripe but still mature grapes into verjuice or verjus.  You can then use this mellow acidifier whenever vinegar or lemon juice is called for. 

  • Taste your grapes, if they make you pull a face then they will make excellent verjuice. 

  • Wash the grapes and separate them from their stalks. You will need a lot of grapes.

  • Put them in a bowl and press down on them with the base of a jar to squash them gently.  

  • Tip the contents of the bowl into a sieve above a basin and squish the grapes with your hands.  It might be a good idea to wear gloves as the juice is quite acidic. 

  • Do this as quickly as the juice oxidises going from green (vert) to brown.  It is still okay to use it just doesn’t look so pretty.

  • Strain the juice into a pot and bring to the boil, then pour into hot, sterilized jars.

  • The verjuice will last a few weeks in the fridge or pour it into ice cube trays and freeze.

  • To make it last longer in the fridge add a little bit of citric acid, and to make it last longer than six months add an even smaller amount of sodium metabisulfite.

  • For three kilograms of grapes you would add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid and 1/8 teaspoon sodium metabisulfite to the juice.  Just be aware that some people are allergic to sulfites.

  • Let the verjuice sit for a few days then pour it into fresh jars leaving the fine sediment behind.

Dried grapes

If at the end of autumn you haven’t munched your way through all your grapes save some good ones to dry.  They will taste a lot better than most shop bought sultanas and raisins. Just be aware that grapes have a lot of juice and therefore take a long time to dry.  The process can be speeded up by blanching the grapes in boiling water for 30 seconds to soften the skin a little.  You can also start the drying process in the oven at the lowest temperature with the door ajar, and then transfer the grapes to a dehydrator.  You can finish them off in the oven but you will have to turn the grapes to ensure even drying and watch them carefully.  The small round old fashioned seedless sultanas are the best ones to dry whole.  Large grapes take longer.  You can give then a squeeze to remove the pips and a bit of the juice or don’t bother and just spit the seeds out when you eat the raisins or crunch them up for extra nutrition.

Vino cotto

If you have bucket loads of sweet, ripe grapes which are not perfect try making vino cotto.  This delicious grape syrup tastes great poured over cakes or added to soda water.  If you add some good quality vinegar it tastes remarkably like balsamic vinegar.

  • Dunk bunches of sweet ripe grapes in boiling water for about 30 seconds then cool.

  • Dry, remove stalks, mash them gently to extract the juice but don’t crush their seeds. 

  • Squeeze them with your hands to release more juice as you won’t get much.

  • Strain through a sieve to get rid of most of the solid matter (great for worms or compost).

  • Put the juice in a pot and simmer for half an hour and skim off any scum. 

  • Pour into a jelly bag or a sieve lined with several layers of muslin over a bowl and let drip overnight to give a clear liquid. 

  • Next day put the juice in a heavy based pot and heat gently until it is reduced by about one third to a quarter and has the consistency of maple syrup.  This will take some time. Keep an eye on it in the last stages to make sure it doesn’t burn or get too thick.

  • Pour the syrup into sterilized bottles and seal or add red wine vinegar equal to one quarter of the volume of the syrup and heat until it is the consistency of balsamic vinegar. 

  • Different grapes will produce different flavoured vino cotto. 

Vine leaves

You can make very tasty dolmades using your own vine leaves.  You need to pick the leaves in spring but you can freeze them so you can make dolmades in autumn.  Pick the younger more tender light green leaves towards the top of a vine.  They should be about the size of your palm in order to make a good parcel of stuffing.  Pick a few bigger leaves to line your pot when you cook the dolmades.  You will need quite a few leaves but thinning your vines does let more air through and lets the sun reach the ripening grapes.

  • Wash the leaves in lots of water. 

  • Drain and then stack about two dozen leaves together

  • Roll the stack of leaves up tightly and secure with some cooking string.

  • Dunk the rolls briefly in boiling water and cool

  • Pat with paper towel to remove any excess moisture

  • Freeze the rolls on a tray lined with freezer plastic or baking paper

  • Then pack the rolls in a bag and vacuum seal them or put into a plastic container

  • Use the entire roll in one go once you have defrosted it

Enjoy your stuffed dolmades on the terrace under the vines with a glass of good wine!