Definitely not tomatoes

[Odsox]

No idea what they are, just found them in the polytunnel.
They're sweet, but they're definitely not tomatoes.

Not tomatoes.jpg (155.93 KiB) Viewed 2300 times

[Brewtrog]

Unfermented wine by my eye

[Green Aura]

Yes, left to rot in a bucket of water, they become quite dangerous. I've heard you shouldn't operate heavy machinery after consumption.

Or lots of raisins? Looks like a good haul either way.

[bonniethomas06]

Wow! They are straight out of a romance era still life! Beautiful!

[Odsox]

Or lots of raisins?

Yes, that's exactly what's going to happen to most of them.
I'm very pleased with this vine, I planted it it February 2014 and last year it had half a dozen small bunches to taste, but this year it has at least 30 full sized bunches.

There's also these ones which will be turned into sultanas or juice, and there's well over 100 bunches of those. Very useful to have, raisins & sultanas for cakes and buns, several litres of juice to sweeten stewed fruit and grapes in our muesli from now till October.

Not tomatoes2.jpg (214.07 KiB) Viewed 2267 times

[diggernotdreamer]

How lovely. The grape vine cuttings you sent me rooted really well and started leafing up, they were in the tunnel and then we had a really hard frost in May and they bought it, absolutely gutted. Do you do any special pruning to them or just let them get on with it

[Odsox]

That's a shame, I'll send you some more next winter if you like (and anyone else who would like some)
As to pruning, I'm still extending the black grape. At the moment it's has 2 horizontal branches from the main stem and then those 2 are turned 90 degrees up the tunnel hoops, and next year I will extend one horizontal to go over the third hoop.
After that it's a case of stopping it taking over by cutting all the rampant growth off about once a month.

[Odsox]

I just realised that I took a photo with that grape vine in it back in May, what a difference a couple of months make.
You wouldn't think it would have 30 large bunches by now.

WPT.jpg (154.11 KiB) Viewed 2209 times

[Odsox]

Start of harvest time. 4.5 Kg of picked grapes just about to treated then dehydrated into yummy raisins.
I estimate that's about a quarter of this year's crop. Not bad for a 2 year old vine.

Grapes.jpg (130.18 KiB) Viewed 2174 times

[Green Aura]

How are the pips? We had an outdoor vine back in Manchester which produced lovely tasting dessert grapes. The only trouble was the pips were huge in comparison to the size of the grape. It was presumably down to their growing conditions.

[Odsox]

Both the black grapes and the white are seedless varieties.
Can't be doing with pips.

[Green Aura]

Good thinking, Batman.

[ina]

Envy!

[Odsox]

The end result, 770 g of raisins from 4.5 Kg of fresh grapes.
A good way to preserve them, especially as I like home made cakes.
Hopefully we will end up with around 3 Kg of raisins when the rest of the crop is done and then of course loads more sultanas when the white grapes are done a bit later.

Raisins.jpg (151.17 KiB) Viewed 2134 times

[diggernotdreamer]

wow, seriously, I am blown away now, they look like shop ones