Scuppernong: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Muscadines_small.jpg|right|300|thumb|Some muscadines in a bowl; the green ones are scuppernongs]] |
[[Image:Muscadines_small.jpg|right|300|thumb|Some muscadines in a bowl; the green ones are scuppernongs]] |
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Revision as of 10:46, 10 October 2008
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2008) |
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A scuppernong (also called "scuppernine" or "suscadine" in parts of Georgia), is a large type of muscadine, a type of grape native to the southeastern United States. It is usually a greenish or bronze color and is similar in appearance and texture to a white grape, but rounder and about 50% larger and first known as the 'big white grape'.
The name comes from the Scuppernong River in North Carolina mainly along the coastal plain, where it was first mentioned as a "white grape" in a written logbook by the Florentine explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano while exploring the Cape Fear River Valley in 1524[1]. He wrote "...Many vines growing naturally there...". Sir Walter Raleigh's explorers, the captains Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, wrote in 1584 that North Carolina's coast was "...so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them...in all the world, the like abundance is not to be found." And in 1585, Governor Ralph Lane, when describing North Carolina to Sir Walter Raleigh, stated that "We have discovered the main to be the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven, so abounding with sweet trees that bring rich and pleasant gummes, grapes of such greatness, yet wild, as France, Spain, nor Italy hath no greater...".
It was first cultivated during the 17th century, particularly in Tyrrell County, when out hunting it was found by Isaac Alexander along the banks of a stream feeding into Scuppernong Lake in 1755; it is mentioned in the North Carolina official state toast. [2] The name itself traces back to the Algonquian word ascopo meaning "sweet bay tree". Native Americans preserved muscadines as dried fruit.
The fruit grows where temperatures seldom fall below 10 Fahrenheit.[3] Injury can occur where winter temperatures drop below 0 Fahrenheit. Some cultivars such as 'Magnolia', 'Carlos', and 'Sterling' survive north to Virginia and west to the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills. Muscadines have a high tolerance to diseases and pests. Over 100 years of breeding has resulted in several bronze cultivars such as 'Carlos', 'Doreen', 'Magnolia' and 'Triumph', that are distinguished by being perfect flowered (male and female flower parts together) from the 'Scuppernong' variety with only female flower parts.
The fruit consists of four parts: the outer skin or hull; the pulp, or 'meat'; seeds; and juice. Several small green seeds are found in each grape. The skin is very thick and tart. The pulp is viscous and sweet. The seeds, which are bitter, can be swallowed with the pulp or extracted and spit out. The most desired part of the scuppernong is the sweet juice that lies underneath its skin.
Scuppernongs figure prominently in the story "The Goophered Grapevine" (1887) by Charles W. Chesnutt, and are also mentioned in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The scuppernong also figures prominently in William Faulkner's novel Absalom, Absalom! as the plant under which Colonel Thomas Sutpen and Washington Jones sit down to drink.
The oldest cultivated grapevine in the world is the 400 year old scuppernong "Mother Vine" growing on Roanoke Island, North Carolina.[4] The scuppernong is the state fruit of North Carolina.
The winter will be short, the summer long,
The autumn amber-hued, sunny and hot,
Tasting of cider and of scuppernong;
Elinor Wylie, from Wild Peaches, Nets to Catch the Wind (1921)
In addition, according to herbal lore, eating this whole grape also has health benefits. The hull adds a significant amount of fiber to the diet. When chewed, the seeds provide a grape-seed extract which, it is claimed, can aid in improving memory and other functions.
Wines, jellies and jams can also be made from scuppernongs. It is thought they were the first native North American grape to be cultivated for these purposes.
References
- ^ North Carolina Wine & Grape Council and NCDOC
- ^ GS_149-2 "A Toast" to North Carolina 2005
- ^ Poling, Barclay and Fisk, Connie (June 2006). "Muscadine Grapes in the Home Garden". NC State University Horticulture Information Leaflets. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Kozak, Catherine (July 14, 2008). ""Mother of all vines gives birth to new wine"". Virginian Pilot. Retrieved 2008-07-15.