Free = Work

While I was out doing some picking from the garden this afternoon, I had a 'meeting at the fence' with my neighbor.  He has a few grape vines growing on the fence between our places, and I wanted to check with him because a fair number of Concord Grapes are growing through onto my side of the fence.  It's not an area where I am familiar with the etiquette, so I figured I would just ask him if he minded us taking them. 

As it turns out, he said he and his wife DO collect the Concords to make jam and juice, BUT he said, across the yard he had a vine of Interlaken Grapes the he didn't do much more with than eat the occasional handful of.  He told me I was welcome to as many of them as I wanted to fight the birds for. 

One thing I learned is that grapes on the vine are icky.  Those nice, tight bunches of fruit represent the perfect home for bugs...and I'm not a big bug fan.  Spiders and earwigs galore, and the first thing I did when I got home with the grapes was dump them in the sink and commence to washing. 

I wasn't really sure how much grapes to get.  Was I looking to get enough to can, or to eat?  Add in the fact that I didn't know an Interlaken from a hole in my head, and I just kind of picked until I didn't feel like picking any more. 

I ended up getting about 8-10 pounds worth, and after a talk with my wife, I think that these are bound for the dehydrator and a life as raisins after the current batch of tomatoes are done.

Well, the ones we don't eat first are bound for the dehydrator, but I'm not sure how many will be left in 24 hours.  These are some good, tiny, sweet grapes.  Each ones a little bubble of flavor. Much tastier than the concord I tried off the vine earlier in the week.  My wife has already made me promise that when we get a house, we will put a vine, or two of these in(spiders and all).