Monday- Food/ Grape Pie

It is grape harvest time 'Around Our Southern Home and Garden'. Muscadines and Scuppernongs are a Southern favorite grape used to make jelly, jam and wine. Known for their thick skin and large seeds, many people prefer to eat them without the skins. I don't mind eating the skins, perfect for adding fiber to the diet, to get to the sweet fruit. Scuppernongs' are muscadines, but many Southerner's refer to the bronze colored fruit as scuppernong and the purple or black fruit as muscadines.

While both varieties grow wild across the south I will purchase my Muscadines from a road side stand. However this week we did harvest our Concord grapes. Concord grapes take me back to my childhood, sitting under the grape arbor, eating grapes, swatting at the bees and spitting seeds at my brothers.

My first cookbook as a child came from the Welch's Grape Company.

I remember it had a picture of a purple cow and a recipe for a Purple Cow Milkshake made with Welch's Grape Juice and ice cream.

( I came out of the womb a foodie)Proper pruning in the spring, feeding last fall, a net and aluminum pie tins hanging over the vines to keep away the birds and squirrels all came together to provide a great harvest. Yesterday I made a grape tart. I wanted to make a grape pie but didn't have any Crisco so I pulled out my frozen phyllo dough and turned my pie filling into tart filling. I first came across Grape Pies while traveling from West Plains, Mo to St. Louis. During grape season St. James, MO is dotted with stands selling grapes and grape pies. I found the taste similar to blueberry pie.

Grape pie is a little more trouble than blueberry but worth the time and a nice change and surprise pie to serve your guest. Grape Pie 2 -9" pie rounds, 5 Cups Grapes ( I used Concord) , 1 1/4 Cups sugar, 1/4 Cup flour. Wash grapes. Remove skins and place pulp into a saucepan. Simmer over medium heat until they come to a boil. Remove from heat and press pulp through a food mill or strainer to remove the seeds. Chop the skins. Combine pulp, chopped skins , sugar and flour together. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Top with second unbaked crust. Cut slits into top crust. Bake in 400 degree oven 30-40 minutes until the crust is light brown. Cool before serving. ( Place a cookie sheet under the pie as the filling will bubble over ) Grape Pie ( Tart) is what we will be having, ' Around Our Southern Home and Garden', today.