Wet weather saw us scurrying to cut open all remaining paper bags containing our precious grapes before some dreaded fungal disease set in…
Where up ’til now, I’d been carefully plucking one bag at a time from the vine, now the whole lot came down in one go (a perfect job for a wet Sunday afternoon); and yes, we have more than we possibly know what to do with! They are the sweetest you can imagine. The red (both muscatel varieties) have been more prolific than the white (which I think I should have picked sooner as many shrivelled in the intense heat), though the ones we do have are small, sweet and juicy as can be.
Does anyone know how you actually turn a ripe bunch of grapes into sultanas / raisins? They are some of the most beautiful, jewel-like fruit that we have ever grown here. Simply ecstatic and anyone I meet this week will be on the receiving end of a BIG bunch!