It is dry, hot and the insects are busy laying eggs everywhere in order to protect their species for the winter. Autumn is my favorite season, so I tolerate the drought, humidity (how does that work?), bugs, heat and sorry-looking plants in my garden. Autumn brings cooler days and that is much appreciated by everyone after all the heat of this summer.
There is a bright spot in the landscape: the muscadine vines! I love walking along the vines, browsing like a happy doe, enjoying the various flavors of the different cultivars. They are ripening quickly and I am picking rapidly. Muscadines are southern grapes that have their own special way of being eaten. To eat them fresh, you rinse them (unless you are browsing), mash them into your mouth (stem end toward your teeth) enjoy the sweet nectar. Now comes the argument! Some people do not like the pulp texture, so they throw away the rest of the fruit. Some throw away the pulp and eat the skin (chewy and tart). Some do not like the skin. Then there are the hardcore southerners who pop the pulp into their mouth, separate the pulp from the seeds with their teeth and tongue, spitting the seeds out and follow up by adding the skin and eating it all.
I am of the latter group. Until 2008 I swallowed the pulp, seeds and all. That year I ate a lot of muscadines and ended up in the hospital for five days with diverticulitis. I blamed it on the seed, but the doctor said it had nothing to do with the seed, it was an infection. My doctor was wonderful and I trusted him implicitly, but decided to err on the side of caution and spit those seeds out (most of the time).
Some folks who are not familiar with our southern grapes have to be shown how to eat them, so I demonstrate this complicated method of eating muscadines. I do tell them it is not a socially acceptable way of eating – really? spitting? They love the sweetness, however, children love the spitting.
I have a simple recipe for a muscadine/scuppernong pie. It is very much like a cherry pie in sweetness and tartness. The recipe is very easy and can be made with with muscadines or scuppernongs (a bronze variety of muscadine) or a mixture of both.
Muscadine/Scuppernong Pie
- 4 cups muscadines (about 2 pounds)
- 3/4 cup sugar (more or less, depending on your taste)
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. butter, melted
- 1 Unbaked 9” pastry shell
Rinse muscadines; drain well. Separate the pulp from the skins by popping the pulp into a heavy saucepan. Save skins in another bowl. Bring the pulp to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to separate the pulp from the seed. Press the pulp through a sieve using a wooden spoon. Discard the seed and combine the pulp, skins, sugar, flour, salt, lemon juice and butter together and pour into shell. Then you can add a crumb topping, pastry strips or a pastry top. I use crumb topping: 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/3 cup butter, cut into coarse meal. Sprinkle on top. Bake at 400º for about 40 minutes. This goes great with ice cream on top!
Of course, muscadine juice, jelly and jam are also tasty treats. You might even want to try some muscadine wine. Don’t let the season pass you by – enjoy this delicacy of late summer. Buy locally – they are a lot cheaper from the farm than the grocery store.
Check out Kathy’s Plants on Facebook and make sure to like my page – it has a lot more information on muscadines.
