Concord grapes and squirrel fritters

[DaveL]

Concord grapes Harvest Questions and squirrel fritters

I have access to about 6-8 concord vines at least 55 years old. They are loaded with grapes at this moment. If the critters don't get them I am in business.
When we were kids we picked them individually and made jelly.
Some of my questions are:
How do you pick them in buches when they ripen at different rates?
If you harvest in bunches at different times how do you store them to crush at one time?
How can I keep the critters from them? Fencing? netting? think ground hogs, squirrels, birds raccoons.
Also have a granny smith tree that the squirrels routinely eat every last apple. Any thoughts on this? Other than squirrel fritters, apparently mom ate enough squirrels when I was growing up to hold her for a life time.

 

[DaveL]

Also at what point should I pray for it to stop raining? 2-3 weeks before harvest?

 

[grapeman]

Good luck with the squirrels. Short of trapping and disposing of them, not much works. Try getting a cat out there. The Concords should ripen together. They will change colors at a different rate, but aren't ripe for a while after they all turn blue. As far as rain, there is way too much this year. It needs to dry up some for quite a while. I wish it would stop now and then get a good rain once a week. We have gone about 45 days with rain in a row now here. Yesterday was the driest in a long time, but it still spit rain for a while.

Squirrel fritters, ymmm. LOL

 

[JohnT]

Yup,

Squirrel cooks up real nice.

 

[DaveL]

Mom said today the squirrel was taking the granny smiths off the tree and dropping them to the ground hog.

 

[JohnT]

Mom said today the squirrel was taking the granny smiths off the tree and dropping them to the ground hog.

THERE IN CAHOOTS!!!!

To quote Elmer Fudd, "BWAST THEM"!

 

[saramc]

I heard that squirrel is good when served with grape jelly, kind of like cranberry sauce.

 

[Turock]

I agree that most of the clusters will all mature around the same time. You can use a refractometer to test the brix out in the field. A brix of 14-15 is ripe enough to pick them. Concord loses its flavor if you allow them to over-ripen. So don't wait too long to pick them when they reach that brix.

When squirrels become a problem around here, they get exterminated to thin their numbers. Nothing like a varmint rifle with a scope on it. I live in the middle of a large forest lot of about 900 acres with MILLIONS of squirrels and just HAVE to reduce numbers,some years.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Squirrel...The other white meat!

 

[DaveL]

I agree that most of the clusters will all mature around the same time. You can use a refractometer to test the brix out in the field. A brix of 14-15 is ripe enough to pick them. Concord loses its flavor if you allow them to over-ripen. So don't wait too long to pick them when they reach that brix.

When squirrels become a problem around here, they get exterminated to thin their numbers. Nothing like a varmint rifle with a scope on it. I live in the middle of a large forest lot of about 900 acres with MILLIONS of squirrels and just HAVE to reduce numbers,some years.

In the absence of a refractometer can I just crush enough to use a hydrometer?

 

[Turock]

I suppose that's an option. The other way to do it is by taste. They should be sweet without a high acid hit on your tongue.

Where do you live? Concords are ripe here around the 3rd week of Sept. but if rain is forcasted, we take them early. Early picking of them is better than letting them get over-ripe because you usually need calcium carbonate anyway to raise the PH.

 

[jamesngalveston]

pile up moth balls around the base of the tree....they hate mothballs.
u can also put a rock are two in a tin can and hang on the end of the branches , for birds....
as far as the squirrels give the ground hogs apples, video tape that...lol

 

[DaveL]

Im in central VA. Mom says usually august. Shes picked them for 40 years so ,,
But she always picks them singles and swears they will ripen individually. I hope to wait for bunches.
I will tryu the mothballs and cans also going to place neting over them this week.