grapes

grapes are a neat food,

you can eat the grapes,
or make wine,
or use the oil from the seeds (I really like grape seed oil for cooking)
or use the leaves,
now I use to think that the leaves had a very limited use (only wrapping other foods in them),
but now that I have to many cucumbers I want to pickle the extra,
and one of the things that makes the pickles crisp is grape leaves,
so they have some neat uses,
when planting this plant in early spring (it looked like sticks in a pot then)

I broke off a one foot long branch when tripping over it,
so not knowing what to do with it (ok, I panicked), I just stuck the broke branch in the ground leaving about  an inch over the ground,

and in spring the branch put out 2 little leaves that were always wilted,
but now they are strong and making more leaves

so grapes are not that hard to reproduce,

they will have new leaves die off if they don't get enough water,

the table grapes at the store have had the outer stem of the plant cut to keep liquid from leaving the grapes,
so they are mostly water, they do this because they are sold by weight (there is a daily cycle that water flows into and out of the grapes with night and day, and the water flows in through the center of the stem and back on the outside of the stem)

if you grow wine grapes they are smaller, but super sweet as they are sold by sugar content and not weight.

you are likely wondering how do I tell the sugar content of the grapes...
they make something for that, it is a brix meter
amazon link to one
and a garlic press works good to get the juice out of your corn, grapes, or what ever you are testing,

grapes are fun, they come in many colors and flavors,
I hope my plants are big enough to spare a few leaves so I can make crisp pickles, 
either that or I am off to go find a limp pickle recipe...

now time to look at some grapes grow