Stunning Flavor, Stunning Beauty
Most of the grapes in our vineyard have ripened already, only Cayuga and one other are still hanging. The birds decided to help me share, first by removing the Labelle, then the Leon Millot, and Golubok. Monastery Muscat and Epicure then got hammered. This was no great loss since the vineyard is not in full production but it is an indication of how much loss we might incur without a good defense. Netting is on my agenda before the 27 harvest.
The birds, I find, have impeccable taste. The Labelle which they ravaged early was, as stated by my new friend from Sammamish "like stuffing all the red fruits in your mouth at the same time".
Likewise, the Golubok has a juice as delicious as it is dark. Some spilled onto my hand and was fairly convincing as fake blood!
Happily, we were able to put up many jugs of Leon Millot juice from the original Epona vineyard and we expect Cayuga, Apple and Marechal Foch juice all coming in the next few weeks from our partners in spray free fruit growing.
We press and freeze in 1/2 gallon jugs. Because of the high sugar and flavor of the grapes we find that diluting the juice in twice the volume of carbonated water makes a delicious beverage with lunch or dinner.
For the next two Thursdays, from 10-2:00 you can get a jug at the Vancouver Farmers market, which is just across the parking lot from the East Vancouver Amaro's Table.
