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Post by castanea on Mar 17, 2012 0:32:59 GMT -5
This topic was brought up in the Monetizing thread in the Soapbox when Flame Tokay, a seeded grape, was mentioned. Flame Tokay was one of the most popular table grapes in the world 50 years ago but it went into decline as unseeded table grapes took over the market.
I'm just curious as to whether anyone has any favorite seeded table grapes. If so, please let us know what they are.
My favorites are Kyoho and Peony, which are unbelievably flavorful. They are both available in season at Berkely Bowl in Berkeley, California. A few people grow Kyoho in California. Only one person grows Peony, and that's the guy who disocvered it. He grows it in California and he won't release any wood so no one else can grow it.
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Post by steev on Mar 17, 2012 1:31:48 GMT -5
As I've mentioned, I'm partial to Flame Tokay for emotional reasons, also Ribier, but Muscats are the essence of late Summer to me.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 17, 2012 12:21:39 GMT -5
I don't know what variety, but i really like the generic round red grapes they often sell at the store. They sometimes come as seedless, but when they are probably the only kind i don't mind the seeds when they do. I cant stand the green sour ones that are often oval shaped because of the giberrellins or whatever chemical they spray them with to grow (like grapefruits) without being pollinated. I think i will try and save seeds next time we have them.
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Post by steev on Apr 16, 2012 22:36:23 GMT -5
My tokay buds are popping, as are the very pink buds of the unidentified grape; hope there isn't a cold snap, like last year.
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Post by sandbar on Apr 26, 2012 22:16:45 GMT -5
What do you use table grapes for? Juice? Jam/Jelly?
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Post by steev on Apr 27, 2012 23:16:09 GMT -5
I eat them, as fresh fruit. I suspect table grapes are probably inferior for juice/jelly, having flavor that is not so strong as Concord, for instance. I think "table grapes" are typically relatively large and sweet, so not so interesting for juice/wine, but good fresh or dried (when de-seeded).
To be totally self-oriented: I munch those puppies in August or September, in the hot midday, while hanging out in my hammock under the grape arbor, and life is good!
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Post by sandbar on Apr 27, 2012 23:20:50 GMT -5
Steev, do you prefer the taste of seeded grapes to seedless? I guess I was thinking that with nice, flavorful seedless varieties available, who would even want to mess with seeded grapes anymore?  |
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Post by sandbar on Apr 27, 2012 23:23:55 GMT -5
I guess my only real experience with seeded grapes was eating what I believe was Concord seeded grapes (purple, slip skinned) off the vine as a child. The juice was sweet and made great grape juice, but the meat was chewy, sour and seeded!
Once I tasted seedless grapes that I could enjoy the whole fruit, I never went back to seeded grapes.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 27, 2012 23:31:02 GMT -5
I eat the seeds of many fruits: tomatoes, apples, watermelon, grapes, peppers, etc. If I want to extract the nutrients from the seeds I'll crush them on the way down. If there was a rule that you had to take the seeds out of grapes before eating them, I wouldn't eat very many grapes.
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Post by steev on Apr 28, 2012 0:47:47 GMT -5
I get the point of seedless grapes, having probably been in my fifties before it occurred to me that I could chew up the seeds, instead of spitting them, as I'd always done from childhood, when my folks grew Flame Tokay, Ribier, and Muscats. I tell myself now that there are valuable nutrients in the seeds, but really, I just like eating what I ate as a kid, only now I eat the whole thing. There's more to food than fuel. It can be evocative of people, places, and times gone, but not forgotten. Kind of a transubstantiation thing, I suppose.
I suppose it's not really a question of the taste, per se, but the experience as it affects me; the ripples it sends expanding through my mind, the scenes and stories it conjures; I think it's accurate to say that these grapes, to me, are Home.
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Post by Walk on Apr 28, 2012 8:50:28 GMT -5
We have Bluebells, a kind of Concord type. We eat them seeds and all, the original Grape Nuts. The grape seeds are indeed good for you. You can eat them in their clever, fruit package or dole out the $$$ to buy grape seed extract in pill form.
We also have Jung's King of the North which are best suited for juice as they are smaller and more tart, although not beyond eating out of hand. I guess we're not too picky when it comes to grapes as we'll eat most any of them fresh.
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Post by bonsaioutlaw on Apr 28, 2012 9:33:01 GMT -5
I was given "Fernando" by some South Philly Italians about a few years back. They make a fantastic wine.
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Post by blueadzuki on Apr 28, 2012 15:29:26 GMT -5
Have never gotten my hands on it, but I have always been curious about the Dragon's Eye grape of China. Like some of the others on this list, this is technically a wine grape, but since the main disparagements about the wines they make from it is that the grape is really too sweet for a good wine grape, I imagine the table quality might be okay (ditto the other two native Chinese wine grapes I have heard of, Chicken Heart and Cow's Nipple). I have also heard the "Pearl of Heinan" is an OUTSTANDING grape, but they get so much money from it I doubt any germplasm for that is let out!
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Post by steev on May 19, 2012 23:24:55 GMT -5
I noticed today that it looks like a bumper crop of Flame Tokay coming, unlike last year when there were still frosts killing the tender growth in May.
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Post by mayz on May 30, 2012 6:37:10 GMT -5
I'm just curious as to whether anyone has any favorite seeded table grapes. If so, please let us know what they are. I have two Muscat Bleu. This grape is not highly sweet but it's really flavorfull and early. Muscat Bleu is an interspecific hybrid developped in Switzerland and resistant to mildew so I can grow it without pesticide. A photo of a part of the vineyard (mainly for winemaking) Attachments:
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