Grapes!

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Grapes!
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jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 14 4:20 pm Post subject: Grapes!
I came across a huge vine laden with small, but sweet and ripe black grapes today! I didn't have the wherewithal to carry much away today, but I think wine may well be the way to go! The boy got some photos which I will endeavour to get him to post when he emerges.

12Bore

Joined: 15 Jun 2008
Posts: 9089
Location: Paddling in the Mersey

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 14 4:24 pm Post subject:
Sounds like a good raisin to go back for more...

Boy Wonder

Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 496

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 14 6:28 pm Post subject:

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 14 2:53 am Post subject:
splendid

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15986

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 14 8:15 am Post subject:
Lucky find. Not the most usual thing to find for foraging in the UK.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 14 5:08 pm Post subject:

In my greenhouse, I have a vine. Very productive. But what to do with the crop? Been experimenting. The experiment was a success, in as far as it convincingly demonstrated that my brilliant idea was in fact Naff.

Idea = make raisins in my oven. Found a "quick" method on Youtube, cut grapes in half, put in dehydrator at 70C for 3 hours. I have no dehydrator, but I do have a super electric oven that will heat at that kind of temperature. It took ages to halve enough grapes to cover three baking sheets. Super ovens are not ventilated, so I had to frequently open the door, change the air and remove condensation. After 4 hours the grapes were (guessing) 3/4 of the way to being raisins. At this point I gave up. Next problem, what to do with 600gm of semi-raisins. Spent best part of an hour de-seeding them. Then bunged them into a cake mix. My other half is most impressed with the end result. Mind you, 4 hours work and 5 hours of oven time for one fruit cake is a bit excessive.

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 14 5:13 pm Post subject:
When will this wine be ready then?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 14 5:20 pm Post subject:

oldish chris wrote:

Next problem, what to do with 600gm of semi-raisins. Spent best part of an hour de-seeding them. Then bunged them into a cake mix. My other half is most impressed with the end result. Mind you, 4 hours work and 5 hours of oven time for one fruit cake is a bit excessive.

600 g raisins in one fruit cake?

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 14 5:25 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

oldish chris wrote:

600 g raisins in one fruit cake?

OK, so I can be rather frugal

More like 400gm that had been "plumped up", e.g, by soaking in tea. The cake mix was based on 1lb of flour.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 14 5:58 pm Post subject:
I'm not knocking you, just worried about your digestive system

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 14 6:23 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

I'm not knocking you, just worried about your digestive system

If only you knew. Being a bit poorly, I'm having to take some medication that has some side effects. One of them is that I have spells that are not dissimilar to IBS. So far, grapes are one of the foods that I can tolerate. So, this month's organic cure for cancer is anthocyanin, I'm managing about 1/2lb of grapes a day. In 4 weeks time I'll be able to tell you that that hasn't worked either

The important issue remains Jamanda's huge find.

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 14 6:49 pm Post subject:
I'm hoping there'll be enough left when I take a trug or so along next weekend.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 14 11:35 pm Post subject:
If you sandwich the grapes (gently) between two plates, you can slice horizontally between the plates in no time.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 14 1:43 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

If you sandwich the grapes (gently) between two plates, you can slice horizontally between the plates in no time.

and then? Do you have a dehydrator?

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 14 11:32 am Post subject:
Sorry, can't help with that. Just a tip for faster slicing!

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