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How to pick concord grapes
3 min read
The smell of a Concord vineyard in September is the reason to go, whatever you end up doing with the fruit.
12
farms
7
regions
August to October
picked
When you can pick concord grapes
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Across every region on Pickeria. Darker months are peak somewhere; your own region is narrower, and the table below gives it.
What to look for
- 1
Pick whole bunches with snips or a sharp twist at the stem, never berry by berry
- 2
Grapes do not ripen at all after picking, so taste from the bunch before you cut it
- 3
Deep uniform colour with no green berries left in the cluster, and a dusty bloom on the skin
- 4
The berries should be slightly soft and come off the stem easily when you tug one
- 5
A bunch that is sweet at the top and sour at the tip needs another week on the vine
What people get wrong
Every one of these is common enough to be worth naming.
- Picking berry by berry rather than taking whole bunches with snips, which is slower and damages the vine
- Cutting a bunch without tasting it, when grapes gain nothing after picking and a sour bunch stays sour
- Taking a bunch with green berries still in it, because those will never catch up
- Sealing wet grapes in a bag, which turns a week of keeping into two days
Varieties worth knowing
Farms post the variety at the gate. This is what the names mean.
Concord
Blue-black, slip-skin, intensely aromatic. The grape of American grape juice and jelly, and nothing like a table grape.
Niagara
The white Concord equivalent, from the same breeding and just as fragrant.
Catawba and Delaware
Older American varieties, pink and coppery, less grown now and worth trying if a farm has them.
Table grapes
Seedless European types, mostly a California u-pick. Crisp rather than aromatic and a completely different experience.
Once you are home
Most people pick more than they planned to.
- Juice is the classic use and freezes perfectly, which is easier than canning it
- Concord jelly needs the skins for colour and the pulp for pectin, so do not discard either
- Slip the skins, cook the pulp to release the seeds, sieve, then recombine with the skins. This is the one fiddly step and it is worth it
- Freeze whole bunches for eating like sorbet straight from the freezer
Where you can pick concord grapes
12 farms across 7 regions, earliest season first. Every date came from the farm's own words.
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August to October
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August to October
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September to October
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M
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September to October
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M
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September to October
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September to October
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September to October
