i6o Next to the Ground 



Muscadines which are half wild, half tame, 

 growing as well in the garden as the woods, 

 look more like plums than grapes, though the 

 vine proclaims their real nature. They are 

 as big as small marbles, and grow in clusters 

 of three or five. They turn black in August, 

 and ripen in mid-September. As soon as they 

 are ripe they drop, often bursting if they drop 

 from a good height. They are full of sweet 

 juice and pale-greenish pulp. The skin is 

 thick, leathery even, black outside with a 

 heavy blue bloom, and deep wine-red inside. 

 It is full of burning foxy flavor that quite 

 spoils the fruit for the human palate. But 

 muscadine wine, properly made, is nearly as 

 good as champagne — clear, sparkling, of a 

 delicious pale pink, and a rich fruity bouquet. 

 Proper making is tedious work — the pulp 

 must be deftly popped out, and the skins 

 thrown away. Pigs and possums do not in 

 the least object to the skins, though some- 

 times when they are eyelid-deep in musca- 

 dines, they raise their heads, open their mouths, 

 and make a little blowing noise, as though 

 trying to cool a burning tongue. 



Winter grapes, otherwise coon grapes, are 

 inedible even to Brer Coon until after frost 

 has fallen upon them. The vines are ram- 

 pant, the fruit very plenty, though both the 

 clusters and the berries are much smaller than 



