REALLY Sour Grapes

Okay guys, I have new batches of cinnamon apple and grape jelly ready! In fact, Old Sarge and I made a dinner of homemade bread and different jellies last night, because I won’t let this stuff go out before making sure it is tasty. I know, I know, the sacrifices I make for you!

I am no novice when it comes to berry picking. Sunday morning, OS and I went out to the farm to pick wild grapes, hoping to use them for jam. After we had gotten a 5 gallon bucket full, we headed for home and I dumped the grapes in a sink full of cold water to wash them. Now, when picking berries, you’re usually going to get a few freeloaders coming along for the ride, i.e. bugs. Washing your berries gets rid of them, you just have to be very thorough. So when the first earwig came crawling out of the sink, it was no big deal, Old Sarge was ready with his Paper Towel of Doom to insure there would be no extra protein in the fruit. But something was looking really strange. The water in the sink was, well, roiling! Either these were Mexican Jumping Grapes, or there was a mass exodus of critters trying to escape the flood. Little black and yellow beetles were swarming in the water, and then to my absolute horror, I see little tiny worms making their out of the grapes. As in the inside of the grapes. Thinking of the ones I had eaten at the farm and ready to hurl, I did the only reasonable thing I could think of- I started screaming at Old Sarge to get those damned things out of my sink, out of my kitchen, out of my damn house NOW!!!!!

Thankfully, I had a plan B, which did not include anything I had lovingly gathered in the wild. So RSM, don’t go all wobbly on me, the grape jelly is awesome!