More Grapes

I thought I was about done with grapes.  There are some more on the vines on the dead tree we knocked down, but to get to any of the good ones that are left you have to reach through the buckthorn or Virginia Creeper, and I don't really like doing that.  I'd checked some other viny spots and hadn't seen too much.  Since the easy picking seemed to be over, this last batch of juice was going to be my last batch of juice, and I was going to start thinking about how to turn it into jelly.

I was walking home from my daughter's this morning and decided to check along the edge of the woods rather than come straight down the driveway.  I saw a bunch of vines strangling off what I think is an elm tree, and found another buttload of grapes.  Most of the clusters seem to be made up of ripe grapes.  Most are also a bit out of reach, so we'll have to get some kind of hook to pull them down or some kind of platform so that we can reach them.

I've got about a gallon of grape juice now, and I might get another gallon from the vines I found today.  There have to be more out there.  I don't think we'll keep looking once we've harvested these, though.

I'm going to have to get on killing some of the buckthorn and Virginia creeper.  I guess the buckthorn serves a purpose in that it keeps the kids from wandering off into the woods, but black-caps would do that just as effectively.  The Virginia creeper is a pretty red this time of year, but the berries are poisonous and the stuff makes hubby itchy.

FT