Experience the joy of growing and harvesting grapes in your own backyard. Enjoy fresh the grapes or turn them into delicious raisins
The Grapes of the TownHouse Gardens
Did I mention I have a lot of grapes?
I enjoy the grapes, so do many critters that live nearby. To make it a more challenging meal, I wrapped the bunches of grapes in fabric pouches. This season I used over 100 bags.
Eighty percent of our Townhouse is either rooftop or cement. The small amount of dig-able soil on our hill is the native California hardpan that is a composite of decomposed granite and clay. Grape plants are well adapted to grow in such soil (dirt!). Put a bare-root plant or even a cutting into the ground, then just add water and sun.
During the grape harvest, I pick three to five pounds of grapes.
I remove the unusable grapes outside. This also keeps the ants outside ;-)
I save some for the dinner table, but most of the grapes are dehydrated to make raisins.
I removed the grapes from the stems and spread them out on my dehydration trays.
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I used a paper towel to keep the grapes from falling into the center circulation duct. It is removed before starting the dehydrator.
I set the time for 48 hours and the temperature to 135℉.
Two days later I have raisins!
I bag up the raisins and either freeze them or keep them in the refrigerator.
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