Grape

About

Grapes are small oval berries with soft skin and translucent tart to sweet tasting flesh. Grapes can be seedless or contain small seeds, range in color from light green, to purple, to red to black and come in a variety of sizes.

Table Grapes make for a healthy tasty snack and can be used to make raw fruit and vegetable salads, juice, jams and jellies. Wine grapes vary widely and are specifically grown to make a variety of wines. Raisin grapes are primarily used for dried fruit.

Popular grape varieties include Emperor grapes (grown in Europe), Concord grapes (grown in North America) and Gamay grapes (grown in France).

Grapes contain flavonoids which are essential for maintaining good health.

Information

Other names: green grapes, red seedless grapes, table grapes, purple grapes, muscat grapes, concord grapes

Physical Description

They differ in color (green, amber, red, blue-black and purple), size, taste and other physical characteristics.
Sundar khawani green colored and oval grapes are more sweet then the round ones. Quetta and Afghanistan are the main cultivation area of grapes.

Colors: red, white, green, blue

Tasting Notes

Flavors: sweet

Mouthfeel: Juicy and fleshy, Sweet and tart

Food complements: Cheese, Raisins, Brown sugar, Pastry, Berries, Salad

Beverage complements: Tea

Substitutes: Blueberries

Selecting and Buying

Peak: june, july, august, september

Choosing: Look for grapes even in color and attached to the stem...
The grapes should be plump and firmly attached to the stem. Look at their color: The tones should be even. The green grapes should have a yellowish hue, while the purple grapes should be a robust purple with no greenish tinge.

Procuring: irst, keep in mind that grapes like lots and lots of sunshine and soil that is of more gravel texture. In addition, the soil needs to have good water holding abilities. We want the roots to have plenty of water but not too much because we don't want the plants to get waterlogged. I mentioned sunshine because it's going to be hard to grow grapes if you live in a region that does not have a good amount of sunshine.

As for tools, we recommend a 4 armed kniffen system. This system is made up of wires and stakes. It is what you use to grow and cultivate your grapevines. Next, you'll need a shovel, pruning shears, wire clippers, and a good pair of gloves certainly will help in planting them.

You'll start planting in the early spring. You can plant the vines at a depth of 3 to 5 feet and make sure the vines are 6 to 8 feet apart from the next plant. A year after you originally planted you will go out and start the pruning process.

Preparation and Use

Grapes that are eaten as is or used in a recipe are called table grapes as opposed to wine grapes (used in viniculture) or raisin grapes (used to make dried fruit).

Cleaning: Rinse before eating...
When you’re ready to eat them, wash grapes in a colander under cold water.

Conserving and Storing

Refrigerate grapes in the bag they came in...
Don’t wash grapes when you get them home. Store them in the refrigerator, in the bag they came in. They should last three to five days.

Social/Political

World (2004 FAO) - 65,486,235 MT or 144 billion pounds. Grapes are grown commercially in 90 countries worldwide on almost 19 million acres. In Europe, average yields are 3.5 and 4.2 tons/acre since the emphasis is on wine quality (low yield = high quality). In the USA yields are twice the world average due to a greater proportion of acreage used for table grapes and raisins instead of wine.

United States (2004 USDA) 5,429,500 MT or 11.9 billion pounds. The industry is valued at $2.9 billion, making it the highest value fruit crop in the USA. There are 800,000 acres of grapes in production in California. The major grape producing states in order of production include: California, Washington, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania. Prices paid to grape growers average 16-24 ¢/lb, but this varies greatl

History: Grapes belong to the Vitaceae family. The genus Vitis is broadly distributed, largely between 25° and 50° N latitude in eastern Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Vitis is split into 2 subgenera:

1. Euvitis - "True grapes"; elongated clusters, berries that adhere to stems at maturity, forked tendrils, loose bark that detaches in long strips, and diaphragms in pith at nodes. itis vinifera, the European grape, and V. labrusca, the Concord grape.

2. Muscadinia - "Muscadine grapes"; small fruit clusters, thick-skinned fruit, berries that detach one-by-one as they mature, simple tendrils, smooth bark with lenticels, and lack diaphragms in pith at nodes. V. rotundifolia.

Vitis Species and Cultivars

Three important species and one hybrid group comprise most of grape production worldwide:

V. rotundifolia Michx, the muscadine grape. The species is extremely vigorous and disease tolerant compared to Vinifera grapes, and is well-adapted to the southeastern USA. It lacks cold hardiness, so is not grown in the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, or Midwest. Two classes of cultivars occur: 1) pistillate or female, and 2) perfect flowered or hermaphroditic. ‘Cowart', ‘Hunt', ‘Noble', ‘Jumbo', ‘Nesbitt', and ‘Southland' are popular black cultivars, and ‘Carlos', ‘Higgins', ‘Fry', ‘Dixieland', and ‘Summit' are popular bronze-skinned cultivars other than ‘Scuppernong'.

Vitis vinifera is thought to be native to the area near the Caspian sea, in southwestern Asia, the same region where apple, cherry, pear, and many other fruits are native. Seeds of grapes were found in excavated dwellings of the Bronze-age in south-central Europe (3500-1000 BC), indicating early movement beyond its native range. Egyptian hieroglyphics detail the culture of grapes and wine making in 2440 BC. The Phoenicians carried wine cultivars to Greece, Rome, and southern France before 600 BC, and Romans spread the grape throughout Europe. Grapes moved to the far east via traders from Persia and India. Grapes came to the new world with early settlement on the east coast, but quickly died out or did poorly. This was due to poor cold hardiness, insect, and disease resistance of Vinifera types. Spanish missionaries brought Vinifera grapes to California in the 1700s and found that they grew very well there. Today, US wine production is dominated by California, although Washington, Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan also have significant commercial wine industries based on Vinifera grapes or French-American hybrids.
Vitis labrusca is found growing wild from Maine to the South Carolina Piedmont, west to Tennessee. Today, most Concord grapes are grown in New York and surrounding states.
Vitis rotundifolia is native from Virginia south through central Florida, and west to eastern Texas. This species has been enjoyed by southerners since antebellum times, and has received little attention outside of the southeast. Several thousand acres are cultivated in the southeastern states, mostly Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.