Sour Grapes

So when we were getting moved in a couple years ago, and I had the whole "blank slate" stress in the yard, I was buying and being gifted all sorts of things to work into the garden beds. One of those was a cheap green grape plant from WalMart if I remember correctly. I knew it would be quite awhile before it produced anything, and was unusually (for me) patient with it.

Well, this year it produced! There were four clusters of grapes on the low lying plant, and periodically I'd taste one and realize they were nowhere near ready to pick. This past week, it seemed like they were ready - some of the grapes were even turning a bit brown. I tasted one, and hey, not too bad! So in a panick (because of some going bad), I cut all the clusters from the plant.


Well, while they sure do LOOK good, they're a bit sour for my taste, AND it turns out they're seeded. Blech. These aren't nearly as big as the grapes you normally get at the grocery store - much smaller...but I think that's how they're supposed to be.


However, considering the tartness and tough skin, along with the seeds, I think I've decided I'm going to wait til the plant goes dormant this fall and gift it to a coworker/friend. I might go ahead and replace it with some nicer, seedless grapes, which I already have picked out in a catalog (Stark Bros is running at 20% discount right now!) And this time around, I'll be MUCH more aware of what I'm planting, and can have more control since there are so many offerings... Sure, it'll be a couple more years before there's anything to harvest, but that's alright...this stuff just takes patience.