Grape

“ Put purple grapes or cherries in- To glass, and they will send More beauty to commend Them, from that clean and subtle skin, Than if they naked stood, And had no other pride at all, But their own flesh and blood, And tinctures natural. Thus lily, rose, grape, cherry, cream, And strawberry do stir More love, when they transfer A weak, a soft, a broken beam; Than if they should discover At full their proper excellence, Without some scene cast over, To juggle with the sense. ”

“ To all and every one who plants a single vine I would extend the hand of good fellowship, for he is a laborer in the great work to cover this glorious land of the free with smiling vineyards, and to make its barren spots flow with noble grape juice, one of the best gifts of an all-bountiful Creator. ”

“ The ever-blowing west-wind causes some To swell and some to ripen; pear succeeds To pear; to apple, apple, grape to grape, Fig ripens after fig. A fruitful field Of vines was planted near; in part it lay Open and basking in the sun, which dried The soil, and here men gathered in the grapes, And there they trod the wine-press. ”

“ It has followed civilized man from place to place throughout the world and is one of the chief cultivated plants of temperate climates. This fruit of sacred and profane literature has so impressed itself upon the human mind that when we think or speak of the grape, or vine, it is the Old World species, the vine of antiquity, that presents itself. ”

“ What tree may not the fig be gathered from?
The grape may not be gathered from the birch?
It’s all you know the grape, or know the birch.
As a girl gathered from the birch myself
Equally with my weight in grapes, one autumn,
I ought to know what tree the grape is fruit of.
I was born, I suppose, like anyone,
And grew to be a little boyish girl
My brother could not always leave at home. ”

“ Flowers grow everywhere which will supplement the flavour of the grape; and his life holds flowers of memory, which blossom with every spring. But he denies that his brew would be the more popular if he stripped his meadow to make it so. ”

“ He pecks away at all the bunches, and spoils as many as he can. It is time he went south.
There is no prettier sight, to my eye, than a gardener on a ladder in his grape-arbor, in these golden days, selecting the heaviest clusters of grapes, and handing them down to one and another of a group of neighbors and friends, who stand under the shade of the leaves, flecked with the sunlight, and cry, “How sweet!” “What nice ones!” and the like,—remarks encouraging to the man on the ladder. It is great pleasure to see people eat grapes. ”

“ Fortunately, any departure from normal well-being is easily told in the grape, for the color of the leaf is as accurate an index to the health and vigor of the vine as the color of the tongue or the beat of the pulse in man. ”

“ The flowers on the grape-vine are very small and delicate. They are much smaller than the fruit that forms after they fall. The delicious grape is something more than a seed-holder. If it were meant only to hold the seeds, it would not have all that juicy pulp that is so pleasant to the taste. ”

“ The grape-grower takes great liberties with Nature in training his plants. No other fruit is so completely transformed by the grower's art from its natural habit of growth. Happily, the grape endures cutting well, and the pruner may rest assured that he may work his will in pruning his vines, following to his heart's desire a favorite method with little fear of seriously injuring his vines. ”

“ Grape, grāp, v.i. a Scotch form of grope.
Grape, grāp, n. the fruit of the grape-vine, or of any of the many species of the genus Vitis: a mangy tumour on the legs of horses: grapeshot.—n. Grape′-hy′acinth, a genus of bulbous-rooted plants, nearly allied to the hyacinths.—adj. Grape′less, without the flavour of the grape, said of wine.—ns. Grap′ery, a place where grapes are grown; Grape′shot, shot or small iron balls clustered or piled on circular plates round an iron pin, which scatter on being fired ”

“ You who do not always expect money to grow on everything you touch, you who admire and love a plant or vine and feel well repaid for your labor to see it grow and bear fruit, you who have a vacant corner in your garden well adapted to that purpose, I urge you most earnestly to plant some grape vines, and I assure you that with some knowledge of their care and a determination not to fail you will succeed, and you will eventually be able to see a pretty sight—for, to my mind, nothing is handsomer than a well trimmed grape row with the ripening fruit. ”

“ To all palates the grape is delicious; it is not only one of the most palatable articles of diet, but is more highly medicinal than any other fruit. It is the natural source of pure wine. Pure wine made of grapes is only to be procured, in this country, by domestic manufacture. ”

“ BACCHUS Bring me wine, but wine which never grew In the belly of the grape, Or grew on vine whose tap-roots, reaching through, Under the Andes to the Cape, Suffer no savor of the earth to scape. ”

“ It is the grape present in another form; its essence is there, though the fruit which produced it grew thousands of miles away, and perished years ago. So the object of many a tender thought may be spiritually present, in defiance of space—and fond recollections cherished in defiance of time. ”

“ And especially let us enquire whether the tender grape appear and whether the pomegranates bud forth, what good motions and dispositions there are in us that are yet but young and tender, that they may be protected and cherished with a particular care, and may not be nipped, or blasted, or rubbed off, but cultivated, that they may bring forth fruit unto perfection. ”

“ We are supplied with them most generously and munificently by the people. There are several houses that seem to be common property, where they express the juice of the [215] grape. They have, along one side of the house, a row of large vats, into which the grapes are thrown; and beside these, stone troughs, into which the juice flows. Men get in the vats, and tread the grapes with their feet. It is hard work, and their clothes are often stained with the grape. The figures found in Scripture, taken from this, are true to the life. ”

“ The grape-grower, of all others, should be a close observer of nature in her various moods, a thinking and a reasoning being; he should be trying and experimenting all the time, and be ready always to throw aside his old methods, should he find that another will more fully meet the wants of his plants. ”

“ Grape-juice is the most nourishing kind of a fruit drink, and every family ought to put up enough in the fall when grapes are plentiful and cheap to last all winter. First pick the fruit from the stem, wash and put on in water enough to cover. ”

“ It is very carefully done: each bunch is picked like a flower, and each grape is selected with the greatest care; any grape with the slightest imperfection is discarded. They remain longer on the vines here than anywhere else, so that the sweetness of the grape is doubly concentrated. ”

“ The grape, from the richness and abundance of its juice, is 162the fruit universally preferred for making wine, where it comes to perfection, which it seldom does in our climate, except by means of artificial heat. ”

“ While a northern grape it can be grown in the south and thrives under so many different climatic and soil conditions and under all is so fruitful that, next to the Concord, it is the most popular American grape for garden, vineyard and wine-press. ”

“ A really good table grape should have a large amount of sugar, but tempered and made more agreeable by a due proportion of acid, as, if the acid is wanting, it will taste insipid; a tender pulp, agreeable flavor, a large amount of juice, a good sized bunch, large berry, small seeds, thin skin, and hang well to the bunch. ”

“ Grape-growing is a specialists' business, for the culture of the grape is unlike that of any other fruit. The essentials of vineyard management, however, are easily learned. Indeed, care of the vine comes almost instinctively; for the grape has been cultivated since prehistoric times and the races of the world are so familiar with it through sacred literatures, myths, fables, stories and poetry, that its care is prompted by natural impulse. ”

“ The wine of no country is more acid than those of Africa, but there is nowhere to be found a grape that is more agreeable for its firmness, a circumstance which may very probably have given rise to its name of the “hard grape.”1118 As to the varieties of the grape, although they are rendered innumerable by the size, the colour, and the flavour of the berry, they are multiplied even still more by the wines that they produce. ”

“ Fruits have affinities the same as human beings. Witness the excellent agreement of grape fruit and rum. Nothing else, not the finest liqueur, so brings out the flavor. But there are other fruits which, conjoined to the grape [213] fruit, make it more than ever delicious. Strawberries for example. They must be fine and ripe. Wash well, pick, wash again, halve if very large, and mix well in a bowl with grape fruit pulp, freed of skin and seed, and broken to berry size. Add sugar in layers, then pour over a tumbler of rum, let stand six hours on ice, and serve with or without cream. ”

“ Nature has expended her bounties in fullest measure for the vineyard. More than 2000 varieties of grapes are described in American viticultural literature, and twice as many more find mention in European treatises on the vine. Few other fruits offer the novelties given the grape in flavors, aromas, sizes, colors and uses. ”

“ Grapes the vine-stem bears, Horns the he-goat wears! The grapes are juicy, the vines are wood, The wooden table gives wine as good! Into the depths of Nature peer,— Only believe there's a miracle here! Now draw the stoppers, and drink your fill! ”

“ For here it is to be remarked, that it is a celestial food to eat for breakfast hot fresh cakes with grapes, especially the frail clusters, the great red grapes, the muscadine, the verjuice grape, and the laskard, for those that are costive in their belly, because it will make them gush out, and squirt the length of a hunter’s staff, like the very tap of a barrel; and oftentimes, thinking to let a squib, they did all-to-besquatter and conskite themselves, whereupon they are commonly called the vintage thinkers. ”

“ The vine, which grows to a height of 3 ft., begins to yield in seven years and lasts for over a century. From the grape, which has a pleasant bitter-sweet taste, a wine is also extracted, which is said to excel all others in flavour, fire and strength. ”

“ It is not uncommon to preserve grapes in must, and so make them drunk with their own juices; while there are some that are all the sweeter for being placed in must after it has been boiled; others, again, are left to hang on the parent tree till a new crop has made its appearance, by which time they have become as clear and as transparent1126 as glass. Astringent pitch, if poured upon the footstalk of the grape, will impart to it all that body and that firmness which, when placed in dolia or amphoræ, it gives to wine. ”

“ Should they heave up an inch or more, if well pressed down, they will start and make better growth than cuttings set in the spring. In either case, however, the cuttings should always be made in the fall.
A Rural New Yorker correspondent gets down to the real art of grape eating. Hear him tell how to manipulate the fruit: No! the man who holds the grape between his thumb and dexter finger and squeezes or shoots the pulp into his throat, does not know how to enjoy the fruit, and is not likely to appreciate the good qualities of a fine grape. ”

“ Dry leaves upon the wall,
Which flap like rustling wings and seek escape,
A single frosted cluster on the grape
Still hangs—and that is all. ”

“ The grape is so wonderfully responsive to good care, however, that no true lover of fruit will profane it with neglect, but will seek, rather, to give it a favorable situation, its choice of soils and such generous care as will insure strong, vigorous, productive vineyards of choicely good fruit. ”

“ When sour enough to be 'just right' the barrels should be filled as full as possible and tightly corked or the sourness may disappear."
MAKING GRAPE JUICE
Any girl with a little experience in canning fruit can make for home use and for sale a harmless and delectable beverage out of the surplus grapes. Every good grape year on the farm there comes the question of what to do with the grapes. A little jelly is made when the grapes are green but most people prefer currant jelly or blackberry or crab apple. ”

“ On their heads are the baskets of grapes, and they never drop nor spill them, but carry them steadily down the steep, narrow path to the great vats, where the young men stand on short ladders to reach the top, and pour in the purple fruit. ”

“ The grape-grower must know the gross structure and the habits of growth of the plants properly to propagate, transplant, prune and otherwise care for the grape. Certainly he must have knowledge of the several species from which varieties come if he is to know the kinds of grapes, understand their adaptations to soils and climates, their relation to insects and fungi, and their value for table, wine, grape-juice and other purposes. ”

“ Grapes are much used as a fresh fruit. When they are to be used in this way, the bunches should be put into a colander and washed thoroughly by running cold water over them. Then all the imperfect ones should be removed and the grapes kept cool until they are to be served. Clean grape leaves make an attractive garnish for the individual plates or the serving dish on which the grapes are placed. Grapes are also used extensively for making jelly and grape juice, a beverage that is well liked. ”

“ The flavour, and especially the saccharine principle of the grape, are effects of the uninterrupted rays of a powerful sun: where the sun's rays are less powerful and constant, the sour or acrid juice, which developes itself in the grape at its first formation, is not sufficiently elaborated, and does not lose its primitive character of greenness, before the return of winter arrests its further progress to maturity. ”