The grape is a marvelous fruit that can be eaten raw or made into jelly, vinegar, juice, jam, raisins, grape seed oil, grape seed extracts, and wine. The grape was domesticated in what is now southern Turkey. The making of alcoholic beverages came about by discovering that the skin of the wine contained yeast. This microorganism occurs naturally on the skin of the grape which helps in the fermentation of the wine. The cultivation of grapes are depicted in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Also history records that the Greeks, Romans and Phoenicians all grew purple grape for eating and wine making. The growing of grapes later spread to Europe, North Africa. Also, after the discovery of America the art of grape growing spread to North America. Although, there were native grape in North America the Europeans colonists considered them to be undesirable for making wine.
The commercially grown grapes are usually considered to fall into two categories, this being either table grapes or wine grapes. Most table grape through selective breeding have become what is called seedless grapes. The table grape is usually larger that the wine grape and contains less sugar. The table grape has around 15% sugar and a thin skin, where the wine grape usually has seed, a thick skin and contains about 24% sugar. There are more than a dozen varieties of seedless grapes, but most of them come from three sources, which is the Thompson seedless, Black Monukka, and the Russian Seedless. Some seedless varieties such as Einset Seedless, Venus, and Reliance are plants that through selective breeding have become adaptive to he cold climates of southern Ontario, and the north-eastern United States.
The raisin is another product of the grape. A raisin is a dried grape that is great for snacking, and also used in baking, The raisin is a very sweet dried grape containing about 67% to 72% sugar by weight. The word raisin comes from a French work meaning Grape. The raisin is produced in many regions around the world. The raisin contains Energy, Carbohydrates, Sugar, Dietary fiber, Fat, Protein, Calcium, Iron, Potassium, and Sodium, with Carbohydrates and sugar being the main content of the raisin.
The grape grows on a vine, in clusters of 6 to 300. Most grapes come from the cultivars of Vitis vinefera, a grape native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia area. The Native American cultivar is the Vitis Labrusca, which includes the concord cultivar that most of the grape juice comes from. A grape that is native to Eastern United States and north to Quebec, Canada is call the Vistis Riparia. There is also a native grape to Southeastern United States from Delaware to the Gulf of Mexico called the Vitis rotundifolia better known as the muscadine, which is used to make jelly, jam, juice, and wine.
The production of grapes worldwide covers about 29292 square miles of land. About 2%of this production goes to dried fruit, and 27% used to produce fresh fruit, whereas about 71% goes for the production of wine. So you can see that most of the grapes produced are turned into wine. If you are planting grapes for a hobby just remember always have fun doing so. For more information on growing grapes, visit
http://www.
http://www.bookofgrapegrowingsecrets.com/great-information-on-grape-growing/.
Thank you,
S. S. Barnett