City Gardening

Scuppernong grapes. Photo by Amy C Evans, SFA oral historian

7. Scuppernongs
For a gal who grew up with a grape vine in her backyard you’d think I’d know a grape when I see one, but scuppernongs had me scuppered. The size of ping-pong balls, these juicy fruits were nestled into pint-sized boxes lined up on the open shelves of more than a few vendors at the North Carolina Farmers’ Market where a gaggle of garden writers were visiting during the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh. After explaining they were indeed grapes that grow on a vine, the kind lady behind the counter proceeded to demonstrate how to eat this strange (to me) fruit. Hold them right up to your mouth, she said, and lightly squeeze the too-tough-to eat skin to pop the jelly-like insides right into your mouth. Yum! The sweet, grapey flavour is very intense, which is why it’s so popular in the South for pies and jellied condiments. When I returned home, I opened up a copy of the Garden & Gun magazine (no, I’m not making this up) that I’d picked up at the Raleigh airport to discover an entire article on this odd fruit. Here’s some scuppernong trivia from the pages of Garden & Gun:
· Scuppernongs were first found in North Carolina’s Cape Fear River Valley in 1524. The “mother vine” discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 spanned an acre and still produces fruit today.
· Scuppernong wine was a favourite of Thomas Jefferson
· The vines need a sturdy trellis at least 10 feet long by six feet wide

Does anyone know if these grow north of the Mason-Dixon line?