Muscadines!

It is August and that means it is Muscadine season here on the Bayou! Muscadines are a beautiful dark purple (almost black) grape that grows wild just about anywhere it can grab hold. It grows huge vines that will travel all the way to the tops of the pine trees if necessary to have a clinging spot. These grapes are usually used in making wine, jam and jelly as the skins are relatively tough and hard to chew. I have been eying the Muscadine vine growing along side of the lane for the past month, hoping that the birds, squirrels and 'possums would not beat me to the ripe fruit. Yesterday evening, I toted a batch of fresh-baked biscuits and a jar of peach jam to my brother who lives at the end of the lane. When I reached the vine, I noticed the ground beneath was littered with mushy grapes. Ahh..time to pick! This is easier said than done. This Muscadine vine was gigantic! It had just about covered an entire oak tree and many smaller pines that were about thirty feet from the oak. I pondered the problem..how could I get my grapes?..those beautiful, black jewels that were way out of reach. No easy solution came to mind..there had to be a way, but I was blind to the answer. Late into the evening, the problem stayed on my mind..I had to get some of those grapes! I would "sleep on it" and perhaps an idea would pop into the brain overnight. This morning early, I tended to chores about the house trying not to think about those luscious lovelies that evaded me. The laundry was washed and hung on the line to dry, the sourdough starters were fed and breakfast dishes were washed. Then about midmorning, I received a phone call. My dear sweet brother had once again come to my rescue. "Look on your front steps..I left a bucket of grapes for you."..the sweetest words rang through the telephone! Before I had even ended the conversation, I opened the door and snatched my prize! Grapes! Muscadines! Future jelly! My brother will be rewarded for his trouble. He will find a dozen jars of glorious grape jelly on his front porch tomorrow!

This afternoon (after the jelly-making) I took the time to pulverize some more of the dehydrated orange slices from this past winter. I had plenty of the lemon peel and the grapefruit peel on hand but my stash of orange peel was beginning to run a bit low. This is something that I tend to use quite often in everything from my morning oatmeal to chicken or fish dishes at supper..and yes..it is supper here, not dinner. I normally just use the peel but this time I used the whole orange slice. I threw them in the blender to make this process a bit easier and now have a nice, fat jar full again! Since last winter's hard freeze, my orange trees have not produced which seems strange since my lemons, limes, kumquats and grapefruits are loaded with fruit. The orange

trees are actually Satsuma trees or Tangerine trees as they are the easy-peel type of fruit. Every year, I can a lot of the slices of both the grapefruit and oranges, make marmalades and dehydrate slices and the peels. I have never run out before..I guess I am just eating too much!