We are working with Ever After Farms to purchase tasty, local muscadine grapes for school meals! Their grape vineyard is in Pomona Park is just 60 miles away and it has been a pleasure getting to know their family. Please look for these delicious grapes in school meals during early September! They are as fun to eat as they are tasty!

Muscadines grow in the wild here in North Central Florida – and all over the southeast US. They are much smaller (but delicious) and help support a variety of wildlife, including deer, raccoons, and squirrels. Native Americans ate them, and early European immigrants began cultivating them. Our cultivated varieties are large and sweet but still have the tougher skin and seeds of their native cousins. Years ago, every Florida kid knew how to pop the sweet pulp out of the skin and into their mouth and dispose of the seed. They are worth the work!

You may hear these referred to by native North Floridians as “bullet grapes.” Some sources believe this is because they are as hard as bullet before ripening, others that it comes from the term “Bullace,” a variety of muscadines. Some folks call them Scuppernongs as well – another variety of muscadine that’s fun to say. Whatever you want to call them they are delicious, so give them a try!

LOADING UP

HEADING OUT TO ALACHUA COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS!