{ Muscadines }

For the past 4 years, we set out on a late Thursday afternoon to go pick grapes; Muscadine grapes. These grapes are so aromatic and have the taste of a long summer beneath their skin. They are black, velvety purple, and a bronze green(my favorite). 

Picking muscadines with my daughter always marks the end of summer for me and the start of Fall. 

I'll never forget something she said the first time we walked down the rows picking grapes off the vine."Mom, do you think this is what Heaven is like because I really like it here." 

No word best describes the act of taking a plump

sun-warmed grape off the vine and popping into your mouth

We pick muscadines...and she also likes to catch the grasshoppers and lizards who laze about the vines.

the best grapes are up underneath the vines

I love gnarly vines

Well hello there

She is my Sunshine who makes me happy when skies are gray

Muscadine grapes also make a wonderful wine. Our local winery, San Sebastian , has a great selection of wines featuring muscadine grapes. My favorite is their Vintner's White.

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

Honey Honey

Local honey sold by the old farmer at Blackberry Hill Farm. Every year, when we go pick muscadine grapes, I buy a jar of honey from the ol' farmer. He sits  in his rocking chair in the shade just a bit away from the rows of grapevines and next to him is his grape weighing scale. On an old table next to him he has all his honey jars showcased. They shine like amber jewels in the sun. Seeing him there, summer after summer, I can't help but think of Norman Rockwell paintings. A while back, I read that a small spoonful of local honey a day will help build your resistance to local pollutants and pollens and improve allergies. Basically, the honey is suppose to contain the same pollens and allergens that make us sneezy. Make sense to me. But, I don't bother with all that. I just love it for all it's yummy goodness. Plus, in my household, we love honey, plain and simple. And I have to admit, I am a sucker for the classic canning jar, the way the sun shines through the glass, the simple nature of honey, and the fact that a bunch of cute fuzzy bumbling honey bees with pollen on their noses and feetzies made this from diving themselves into flowers and carrying the flower pollen back to their hive. <<<< (Wow, perhaps my longest run-on sentence ever) 

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

Muscadine Grape Season

You'll find us on any given weekend at the end of the summer amongst the muscadine grape vines of Blackberry Hill in Middleburg, Florida. We have been coming here for the past four summers when Muscadines are in season. I absolutely love their sweet scent and the way their skins have an iridescent shine to them. The kindest old man runs the small farm/vineyard and he sits by his jars of honey and his scale waiting to weigh the muscadines we have picked. The first time we ever came here, my daughter said the sweetest thing which I will never forget, "Mommy, do you think this is what Heaven is like b/c it feels like we are in Heaven together?"

Anatomy of Eating a Grape

First, you pop the flesh out of the muscadine skin

Then you eat it.

And then you spit out the seeds.

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.