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Folklife Friday: Possum Grapes


The possum grapes are ripe.

Being a lifelong scavenger, I am constantly looking for wild and free food on my ramblings. Early this week, on my morning walk, I spied a vine of wild grapes, or possum grapes, as they are known around here.

Wild grapes grow in almost every state in the county. Here in the south, they are abundant in woods and popular with the wildlife. Most are hard to get to; they are sun-loving and will climb to the tops of trees for the sunlight, making them out-of-reach. Fortunately, some vines get tangled over bushes and limbs, keeping the fruit low enough to be available to us.


The grape itself is small and is mostly seed, not really that good to just munch on. Their real treasure is the juice, which has been made into syrup, wine, and jelly as long as we have been cooking. The juice is much more potent than tame grapes. Wild grape jelly is more tart and flavorful than what is usually available in the grocery store.


Back in the day, when we were unable to find all the wild grapes we wanted, we were told that the 'wild' teenage boys had picked them all to make some forbidden wine. If someone found enough wild grapes to can the juice, they had to store it carefully, out of sight and reach of those same boys. It was prized for the treasure that it was.

There were just a few bunches of the grapes I found, and they were on property not owned by me. There was not enough for more than a pint of juice, so I just left them hanging there.

I hope the possums find them.




Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. Song of Solomon 2:15

Comments

  1. Janet,August 26, 2011 at 8:52 AM

    Never heard them called possum grapes before. I remember when I was little, I saw wild grape vines climbing trees on our hills. I have concord grapes in my yard and they have been abundant this year. I have made 4 batches of jelly and almost a dozen quarts of juice. mmm!mmm!

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  2. lil red henAugust 26, 2011 at 12:50 PM

    I've heard of possum grapes but I don't think I remember eating them. We used to have a lot of muscadines in our woods. I think people are forbidden to pick them in the wild now; they're left for bears, etc.
    Do you remember Aesop's fable, "The Fox and the Grapes"? Not much to it, but this made me think of it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 5, 2021 at 6:51 PM

    As kids ,we used to find them in the woods,once we found them we always returned,they as i remember are a little tart than regular grapes and a lot smaller

    ReplyDelete

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