Concord Grapes on the Day of German Reunification

Concord grapes from a Berlin allotment garden, October 2022
Photograph by the author
Public domain

I found apples, two damson plums, and a few bunches of purple Concord grapes at the allotment gardens this afternoon. A lot of the baskets were empty, presumably ransacked nicely by city-dwellers out on a walk on our Day of German Reunification holiday. But the gardener who grew the grapes was sitting in her garden, so we had a chat over her fence and I was able to say thank you.

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CONCORD GRAPES grew in private gardens around the city where I grew up in Canada. We also bought them (grown in the Okanagan Valley, most likely) on rare occasions from chain grocery stores during the peak season.

They are also native to North America. So I was surprised to find them in a Berlin garden. Ephraim Wales Bull developed them in Massachusetts in 1849.

Their flavour is akin to the artificial grape flavouring in lollipops, fruit gums, and all kinds of other candy. But they are also used to make jellies and grape juice.

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I've mostly eaten them fresh; I haven't tried to bake or cook them. But Martha Stewart's website has a whole set of Concord grape recipes, from mulled grape juice for Halloween to a grape and lavender sorbet.

Photographic plate of Concord grape
from the book The Grapes of New York, 1908
by Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick
Found on Wikipedia

Source: "Concord grape" [Wikipedia]