Wild grapes will always have a special place in my heart: they’re the first wild fruit I ever picked, tasted, and really enjoyed cooking with. I first read about my local river grape (Vitis riparia) that grow in the Midwest in the book The Forager’s Harvest by Samuel Thayer. After I was primed to notice them, like a lot of other plants, I started to see them everywhere.
Habitat
They love to grow alongside roads, and the edges of forests and parks. I know a number of parks around that have huge wild grape populations right in their parking lot that produce. Really anywhere that gets more sun that in the thick of the woods you will find these.
My grandmother has a wild grape vine that has grown up her trellises on the side of their deck, and their friends come every year to pick the grapes and make wine with them. Wild grape wine is great, sure, but wild grape jelly is even better.
The leaves of wild river grape (Vitis riparia).
Harvesting
When Summer is peaking in the Midwest, generally around August for me, I might start to pick wild grapes. My harvest plan begins much earlier though. If you’re out hiking for other things like mushrooms, herbs and plants during the growing season, it’s easy to see where the grapes will be fruiting heavy– I like to take a picture on my phone and make a note of really good patches and places to come back to.
When the grapes are ripe, deeply colored and filled with juice (filled is relative here) I strip them from the branches and put them in a box or something that won’t rip if it gets damp. Plastic food-grade cambros, cardboard, and under-bed containers are good too, since the grapes are spread out horizontally so as to not crush the fruit on the bottom.
You can cook with wild grape juice where you’d like a tart sauce. Here used to glaze goose confit.
Should you pick after a frost?
A common piece of folk wisdom for harvesting a number of fruits is to wait until a frost to make them sweeter. While this does work, it generally takes a couple hard frosts for it to be noticeable, so I just wait until the grapes are nice and ripe, without worrying about a frost, since, by the time a frost comes, wild grapes can also be dried out, which will directly affect the amount of juice you get from them.
Produce boxes work good for hauling grapes. I also use restaurant-size bus tubs.
Processing / Juicing
Once I bring the grapes home, I try to process them quickly so they don’t dry out in the fridge. Here’s what I do:
Mashing wild grapes with a potato masher.
Take the grapes, stems and all, making sure they’re clean and free of grit (taste a few to make sure and wash if you need/want) and put them in a large pot. Next, I mash the grapes up with a potato masher, mixing it around here and there to make sure I’m getting grapes from the bottom.
Adding a little water to cover the mashed grapes by about an inch.
When the grapes are mashed up and juicy, I add some water, just enough to make sure that the grapes are completely covered by an inch or so of juice. The reason for the water is that wild grape juice is very thick, and a little extra liquid will make processing much easier-it will not dilute the strong flavor of your wild grape juice.
Warming up the mashed grapes to help the juice release.
After the grapes are mashed up and I’ve added the water, I put the pot on the stove and allow it to get hot enough to steam. Don’t bring the pot to a boil, you just want to get it warm as it makes the juice relax and will help it go through a strainer, which will give you the highest yield possible.
Separating the juice from the grape mash with a colander.
I carefully dump the grape juice and skins into a colander in a large bowl, allow it to drain, then I remove the leftover skins and stems, allow them to cool until I can handle them, then wring out the juice.
This is a messy process, and you’ll see in the video at the end of this post that I do it in a garage. You don’t want to do this in a kitchen or inside the house.
Wringing out the grape juice trapped in the stems and skins.
From here I strain the thick juice one more time through a fine strainer. The finished grape juice can be frozen, or processed into things like jelly or wild grape reduction, etc.
Making vinegar from the scraps
Adding some homemade vinegar to the leftover skins and seeds with sugar and water to make homemade wild grape vinegar.
You’re not done yet! There’s still goodness left in those wild grape stems, skins and pits, and while you could pour some water over them, mix them up, and strain it to get a weak juice.
I prefer to use the leftover mash to make homemade vinegar that I use instead of red wine vinegar. It’s fantastic. See the full recipe with proportions for fruit scrap vinegar here.
Wild grape vinegar, made from scraps.
Tartaric acid
You can use raw grape juice pressed from the fruit too, but you’ll get a lot less juice, and it’s very, very strong. Wild grape juice is not something you’re going to be pouring into a juice glass for breakfast as it’s incredibly tart, but also since it has tartaric acid crystals that can cause loose bowels when drunk in quantity.
I can’t drink the juice raw at all, as my tongue is sensitive to it, and I know others that share my sensitivity. Don’t let that stop you though, wild grapes are still one of the most bountiful, delicious wild fruits I’ve tasted, you just need to know how to use them.
Stuffed grape leaves with wild grape reduction is a good example of the whole plant being used in a dish. I served these to the Today Show when they came to film.
Cooking with the finished juice
The finished juice is perfect for wine, jams and jellies, but there’s lots of other things you can do with it too. I use wild grape juice for all purpose cooking in recipes that call for red wine.
I also make a reduction from it you can use similarly to saba or balsamic vinegar reduction-a sort of wild grape molasses inspired by a traditional fruit juice reduction called pekmez from Turkey (typically made with mulberries).
Wild Grape Leaves
The leaves confused me for a while, since a certain chef I worked for told me they were inedible as they were tough. He was wrong–wild grape leaves are exactly the same grape leaves sold in stores, but it did take me a couple years, and dating a Greek woman to figure it out.
Stuffed, naturally fermented grape leaves with lemon-yogurt.
In hindsight, I should’ve just looked up a Greek cookbook, or a blog. The best part is that grape leaves can be harvested while you’re checking on grapes growing throughout the season, as once the grapes are ready, a lot of the leaves will be past-prime. I can collect hundreds of leaves from a single vine or two in an hour if I’m working quickly.
So yes, grape leaves are edible, and fantastic for their most traditional use: stuffing. Since they’re tough, tannic and sour, you’re not going to be making a salad out of them, although I’ve had some preparations where the leaves are pickled or fermented and then cut into pieces and used in dishes.
Fermented grape leaves
Jars of fermenting wild grape leaves.
Fermented grape leaves are traditionally used for stuffing (dolma, dolmathes, dolmades, etc) and it’s hard to find a better way to enjoy the leaves.
If you’ve ever had commercially pickled grape leaves, they can be very strong on the vinegar, and I know plenty of people that don’t care for them. Foraged grape leaves you pick yourself though, are a blank canvas for whatever flavor you like. See my recipe for fermented grape leaves here.
Grape Tendrils
These are small, but fun if you have some grape vines growing in the house or around the backyard. The young, tender tendrils/tips of grape vines are nice and tart, and add a great taste to salads. Try them!
Wild grape tendrils, while small, add a great tart bite to salads.
How to Process and Juice Wild Grapes.
Equipment
- Large stock pot (stainless steel)
- Potato masher
- Colander
- Fine mesh strainer
- Very large mixing bowl
Ingredients
- Wild grapes, at least 4-5 pounds, preferably more.
- Water, enough to cover the mashed grapes by an inch or two.
Instructions
- Harvest ripe wild grapes. I like to use a scissors to remove the whole clusters to make sure they don't get bruised or smashed during transport.
- Inspect the grapes and eat one of two to see if they have any grit, mine are often so clean I don't bother to wash them, but this can vary depending on where you harvest. Grapes on the edge of a working field might be very dirty (and could also be sprayed for that matter).
- Put the grapes into a pot, stems and all, then mash them up until juice nearly comes to the top with a potato masher or another blunt object.
- When the grapes are well mashed, add some water to cover them by about an inch.
- Cover the pot and put it on a burner, then warm it until the pot is steaming. Do not allow it to boil.
- Working in a place that's easy to clean, like a garage or outside, put a large colander into an even larger bowl then carefully pour the grape juice and stems into the colander. Allow the juice to drain out, then remove the wild grape mash and allow to cool until you can handle it.
- Wring out the excess grape juice from the warm mash. Reserve the mashed grapes to make wild grape vinegar (optional). Strain the juice through a fine mesh strainer, then portion into containers and freeze, or use to make jams, jellies, wine, grape molasses, etc.
Racking off the tartaric acid
- Before using wild grape juice, I like to allow the tartaric acid to settle overnight in a fridge in a clear container, then I pour off the juice and add the tartaric acid that settles on the bottom to the vinegar I started. Not straining out the tartaric acid will mean your juice will be very tart.
Making vinegar with the leftover skins and seeds
- Save the leftover skins and stems to make wild grape vinegar (refer to my recipe for fruit scrap vinegar)
Video
Recipes
Grape Leaves Stuffed with Fruit and Nuts
Bison Cooked in Wild Grape Juice
Hello!
Husband made the Wild grape jelly and I put “The seeds and flesh of the berries are reserved, put into a container and covered with vinegar. After a month or two or even a few weeks the vinegar is very strongly flavored of grapes, and then I add sugar to the vinegar, cook it down to syrup and then add that to sauces, salad dressings, etc, its also good poured over vanilla ice cream, much like the Italians do with nice balsalmic vinegar.”
Could you advise how much sugar to how much “of the wild grape vinegar” is to make the syrup.
Would like the recipes for it. Thank You!
Hello!
Husband made the Wild grape jelly and I put “The seeds and flesh of the berries are reserved, put into a container and covered with vinegar. After a month or two or even a few weeks the vinegar is very strongly flavored of grapes, and then I add sugar to the vinegar, cook it down to syrup and then add that to sauces, salad dressings, etc, its also good poured over vanilla ice cream, much like the Italians do with nice balsalmic vinegar.”
Could you advise how much sugar to how much “of the wild grape vinegar” is to make the syrup.
Would like the recipes for it. Thank You!
I would combine the vinegar with equal parts sugar and cook into a simple syrup. The consistency can be adjusted by less or more reduction.
Sitting at the fire station this weekend I had to check on the Black Raspberries that usually grow behind the station. This year there is many vines growing. Look like grapes. So into the station with one I came to have a look at the internet. Yes, there were small grapes starting too. Sure enough, wild grapes, confirmed they were not any lookalikes. (moonseed) So I have about 75 of varying sizes as I am not sure how big/old/tough they will be. I plan to ferment them in a brine much like the kraut. I had to check your site, knowing you would have attempted some sort of dish with them. Again, really enjoy your info you share. I only hope I encounter some not so stringy. If so, I wonder what else fermented grape leaves would be good for? I guess first see how they taste.
Hey Jeff, I updated the post, thanks for reminding me of it. The grape leaves are actually easy to cook and stuff for making dolmas. Blanch the leaves in salted water first, then you can pickle them, or simply stuff them with meat and rice, wrap them tightly, and steam them until the leaves are tender and the meat filling is cooked through. We’ve been serving them on the relish tray at the Salt Cellar. If you don’t have a steamer, you can improvise one with a colander inside of stock pot, or you could just braise them in the oven, they’re great.
Alan, I finally got around to picking some wild grapes along the lake yesterday. The variety appears to be riverbank or frost grapes. They’ve had a few nights of light frost which should improve the taste. Just letting the tartaric acid settle to the bottom before boiling with sugar and a bit of lemon juice. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Keep up the good work your posts are always inspiring. Regards from Canada Bill
Alan, I’m 74 yrs old, as a kid my mother made wild grape jelly every year, but in the last 30 years there are no wild grapes here anywhere, would it be possible for you to send me some starts in the spring? I will be more than happy to pay the shipping. Thanks, Garnet.
I’m sorry Barney, I’m waaay too busy to do that. Wild grapes are very common and widespread, I would ask in a FB group or another wild food forum, they are legion.
I’d be happy to send you a few jars of my wild grape jelly for you to enjoy.
why would you harvest grapes so early in the season? My grandmother harevested grapes after a frost. the grapes are sweeter then and make better juices and jellies