Grapes

Nothing makes me feel so rich and bountiful as picking the grapes at the end of the summer. This year there were three times as many as usual!

Concord grapes are not very tasty eating, but they make great juice. One of these days I am going to figure out how to make a little wine with them...

Robins have this great attraction to grape vines for some reason, but we always chase them away if we see them nesting in the vines because they can cause disease. This spring a chipping sparrow nesting in vines. She was allowed to stay and raise her tiny family under the leaves. Of course, that was long ago and now the nest is catching overripe grapes!

It took me at least an hour to weasel my way into the vines and get everything. The vines grew so much this year they took down part of their braces!
Many thanks to Hillary for adding her artistic touch with several of these pictures.

The whole crop, well minus the few that were not ripe I left for the 'birds'. :D Three days later we canned almost 4 gallons of grape juice. I think we are set for Passover now!