Back to school means change for a lot of children, but there are just as many constants: homework, No. 2 pencils and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
That last time is a lunchtime staple for young eaters. Chances are, the jelly is from Concord grapes, as is the juice that’s poured from a million bottles all across the country.
So consider, for a moment, the ubiquity of the Concord grape. Seems like it should be sitting pretty.
But life wasn’t looking so sweet in the Concord grape vineyards of southwestern Michigan last year. By late afternoon on an early September day, the lowering gray skies served to further shade the worried creases of each face, old and young, of the two Kerlikowske men working their field.
The frequent light showers misting the vines and mucking the dirt below weren’t the problem. The weather had played a more troublesome role earlier in the year: A spring freeze had forced the ensuing grape crop to produce skeletal bunches and shortened the picking season from 35 days to less than half that. The Kerlikowskes, Ed and Ed Jr., with decades of farming experience and modern equipment and techniques available, still found themselves at the mercy of the weather–just like farmers over the centuries.
“You never know how the season is going to go until every grape is in the box,” Ed Jr. said. “You can have a good growing season and then a hailstorm could come along and wipe everything out.”
He lifted up a sparsely fruited grape cluster. “We like a hot and dry summer, but a cold and wet May and the same into June caused this problem,” he said.
Michigan is fourth in the country in Concord grape production. In a good year the state still turns out a respectable 50,000-55,000 tons, according to Vince Matthews of the Michigan Agricultural Statistic Service. Last year, however, production sank to 19,000 tons. “That was a low year for us,” Matthews said.
The Kerlikowske family has owned farmland in Berrien County, about 45 miles north of South Bend, Ind., since the early 1960s, growing Concord grapes–and Niagara grapes, of the Concord family–on what now totals 500 acres across the county. These grapes, their purple skin patchily opaque with a mist of bloom, rarely make it to the supermarket in their fresh form.
Instead, their fine, dark juice forms the base for beverages and jelly over at the Welch’s processing plant, 40 miles to the west in Lawton. Like other farmers who grow juice grapes, the Kerlikowskes belong to the National Grape Cooperative, an association of more than 1,400 growers from New York to Washington and Ontario, Canada. The cooperative owns the Welch’s company, which turns the juice into consumer products.
Though Michigan produces table grapes–the thin-skinned green and red clusters consumers most often eat fresh–as well as wine grapes, those branches of the viticulture industry aren’t the Kerlikowskes’ concern. But even if their products’ customers are children, not wine aficionados, the grapes still have to be good and sweet and plentiful. Processed though they eventually may be, the Concord grapes must be in good condition if the family is to make any money.
A veteran of the grape industry, Ed Sr. said that many of the principles of growing grapes have remained the same over the past century. But plenty of changes–good and bad–have affected production in recent history.
“When we picked by hand, it used to take 25 people to go through an acre a day,” he said, perched in the cab of a combine as it moved through the rows of dusky purple and green. “Now we can do two acres an hour.”
He needs a staff of only three seasonal employees, plus assorted family members, to cope with the harvest. But other costs are up, particularly for equipment and supplies. If the harvest doesn’t cooperate with adequately sweet grapes–juiced and tested with a device that measures sugar content before packing–the grapes won’t get sold.
And in 2001 there was the additional problem of the thinned-out clusters.
“Typically you would not be able to stick your hand in here,” said Ed Jr., reaching into a cluster pocked with empty nodes that should have sported grapes. “You should see 40 berries on this bunch. Instead it has eight.”
The news hasn’t been much better this year.
“We had another freeze this spring,” Ed Jr. said last week. “Things aren’t quite as bad as they were last year, but not much better. It’s certainly far from a bumper crop.”
Though consumers might feel far removed from a farmer’s troubles, it would be a shame to take for granted this venerable fruit, descendant of a plant native to North America.
The Concord’s ancestor grew wild in New England, according to the Concord Grape Association trade group. The fruit we now know gets its name from the town of Concord, Mass., where this particular variety was first cultivated in the mid-1800s. The credit goes to Ephraim Wales Bull, a horticulturalist with such illustrious neighbors as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott.
The stubborn Bull is reputed to have planted more than 20,000 seedlings in the sandy soil before perfecting the town’s namesake grape, a hardy variety with a thick “slip-skin” that differed from thin-skinned European grapes. Bull gave the grape his town’s name, not his own. But as his tombstone (designed as a truncated grapevine) in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery reads: “He Sowed, Others Reaped.”
Did they ever. Today, nearly half a million tons are grown each year in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Welch’s company.
The Concord-based Welch’s, besides being the leading manufacturer of juice grapes into everything from jam to frozen juice pops, has a historical interest in the grape itself.
It was a New Jersey dentist, Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, who in 1869 successfully pasteurized the juice to make a non-alcoholic sacramental “wine” that could be served at his local Methodist church. The juice was popularized when samples were given to the thousands of people attending the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, according to Welch’s.
Welch’s son, Charles, turned the juice production into a business over the next few decades, and the beverage found other takers, including the U.S. Navy, which in 1914 officially substituted grape juice for alcohol aboard all ships. After Welch’s branched out into jam and jelly production by the 1920s, the Concord grape went on to the heights of pop culture by sponsoring such TV programs as the Howdy Doody Show and placing cartoon characters on jelly-turned-drinking glasses.
For those reaching for a jar of jelly in their own kitchen, the Kerlikowske crew will be out in the fields this month, picking and packing these native beauties from first thing in the morning until it gets too dark to see. Whether the season makes a profit or just breaks even, the Kerlikowskes won’t know until later in the fall, after their product is thoroughly weighed, evaluated for sweetness and accepted by Welch’s. If their labor isn’t so fruitful this year, well, “We just take our belts and squeeze tighter,” Ed Jr. said.
That’s the farmer’s life, when you wait for the weather to favor you. Like a grape, sometimes, in fact.
Drink to your health
It’s not quite the “French Paradox,” that widely touted theory of the last decade that suggested that the French habit of drinking red wine may prevent heart disease in a population that also favors cigarettes, cheese, cream and other animal fats.
Now studies released independently by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Georgetown University and The Journal of Medicinal Food have reported various beneficial effects of drinking purple grape juice. Credit is given to the flavonoids, natural compounds present in red grapes. In the case of grape juice, they allegedly do everything from increasing antioxidant levels and prohibiting blood clotting to lowering cholesterol, reducing plaque in arteries and reducing tumors in lab rats.
For those who followed the French Paradox, it makes sense, non? Red wine and the kiddy drink all come from grapes. The research is ongoing; stay tuned.
— Kristin Eddy
Grape destinations
Grapes, whether fresh off the vine, pressed into juice or cooked into jam, may be used in all sorts of recipes. Try the ideas offered here, using Concord grapes if available, or any sweet red or green grape available at the market.
Roast pork with Concord grape glaze
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Yield: 6 servings
Pork loin, always a quick fix in the kitchen, is even more welcome with this grape-based glaze. Developed in the Tribune test kitchen.
1 pork loin (2 pounds)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, quartered
1/4 cup each: dry white wine, Concord grape juice
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/4cup Concord grape jelly
2 tablespoons brandy or sherry
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Rub pork loin with oil; use remaining oil to coat bottom of a roasting pan. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper to taste; place in pan. Scatter onion quarters around pan.
2. Roast pork 10 minutes. Combine wine and grape juice in a small bowl; pull pork from oven and spoon liquid over. Return pan to oven. Continue roasting until instant-read thermometer inserted in center of pork reads 160 degrees, about 40 minutes. Transfer pork and onions to a platter; set aside.
3. Place roasting pan on stovetop over medium-high heat. Stir in chicken broth, grape jelly, brandy and curry powder. Simmer until sauce is reduced and thickened, 5 minutes. Slice pork. Divide among serving plates; spoon sauce over to serve.
Nutrition information per serving:
415 calories, 57% calories from fat, 26 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 90 mg cholesterol, 360 mg sodium, 12 g carbohydrate, 32 g protein, 0.3 g fiber
Peanut butter and grape jelly bars
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 25 minutes
Cooling time: 30 minutes
Yield: 22 bars
Tribune test kitchen director Donna Pierce sampled a similar bar cookie at a school potluck dinner and liked it so much she re-created the recipe.
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
2 eggs
2 cups Concord grape jelly
1 bag (10 ounces) peanut butter chips
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees; mix together flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Blend in sugar and butter with a pastry blender to make crumbs the size of peas.
2. Press half of crumb mixture firmly into a greased 13-by-9-inch baking pan; spread grape jelly over crust. Sprinkle peanut butter chips over jelly; top with remaining crumb mixture.
3. Bake until crust turns golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool on wire rack, about 30 minutes; cut into squares.
Nutrition information per bar:
310 calories, 36% calories from fat, 13 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 35 mg cholesterol, 155 mg sodium, 47 g carbohydrate, 4.7 g protein, 1.5 g fiber
Wine country pickled grapes
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Chilling time: 48 hours
Yield: 5 cups
This unusual grape recipe, from Elaine Bell, a caterer in California’s Sonoma Valley, produces juicy grapes with a pleasantly spiced flavor. Serve on a platter of cocktail nibbles with a variety of cheeses and olives, or as a side dish to roast poultry or pork.
2 pounds Concord grapes or seedless red grapes, stemmed
2 cups raspberry wine vinegar or 1 cup each: red, white wine vinegar
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup dry red wine
6 cardamom pods, crushed
4 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 sprig fresh tarragon
1. Place grapes in a 2-quart jar, bowl or other non-reactive container. Mix together vinegar, sugar wine, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and tarragon in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook until sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes; remove from heat. Cool 10 minutes.
2. Pour liquid over grapes. Cover container with a tight-fitting lid or several layers of plastic wrap; chill grapes 48 hours, stirring occasionally. Strain liquid from grapes.
Nutrition information per 1/4 cup:
35 calories, 4% calories from fat, 0.2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 mg sodium, 9 g carbohydrate, 0.3 g protein, 0.5 g fiber
Chicken salad with grapes
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Chilling time: 2 hours
Yield: 8 servings
This salad staple, developed in the Tribune test kitchen, will be a favorite on every lunch table.
2 cups each: dry white wine, water
1 medium each, coarsely chopped: onion, carrot
1/2 cup celery leaves
1 tablespoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon peppercorns
3 1/2 pounds chicken breast, skin on, bone in
3/4 cup each: grape halves, minced celery, mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
Freshly ground pepper
1. Mix together wine, water, onion, carrot, celery leaves, 1 tablespoon of the salt and peppercorns in large heavy pot; add chicken. Heat to a slow boil over low heat, about 40 minutes; simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken with slotted spoon; reserve broth for later use.
2. Remove meat from bone; shred into large bowl. Stir in grapes, celery, mayonnaise, thyme, remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt and ground pepper to taste. Chill at least two hours before serving.
Nutrition information per serving:
325 calories, 56% calories from fat, 20 g fat, 3.2 g saturated fat, 85 mg cholesterol, 250 mg sodium, 5 g carbohydrate, 29 g protein, 1.1 g fiber
— Kristin Eddy Tribune staff reporter.
