Greenmarket Grub: Concord Grapes

This isn’t a word I use often, but I must ask: aren’t they just gorgeous?

If you’ve only ever tasted supermarket grapes (as I had until last year), you have no idea what you’re missing. It’s an intensely… grapey flavor. After one grape, you will suddenly understand what artificial grape flavor is striving towards and yet never really getting it right. Those grapes are from Wager’s Cider Mill from out near the Finger Lakes in upstate New York.

I have to admit, I love the grape people. They sell from a small table on the outer edge of my neighborhood Greenmarket, and spur you to try the grapes (knowing, as I just said, you’ll be amazed at how they taste). I’ve had Concord as well as Seneca and Yates varieties of grapes from them so far, all slightly different but equally delicious.

Still, my usual Greenmarket problem arises: my urge to buy grapes can often outstrip my ability to eat said grapes in a timely manner. So, what to do with all these lovely grapes?

How about a pie?

I don’t know why, but the idea of a grape pie was completely foreign to me. People have always made pies out of whatever fruit they had on hand — rhubarb, huckleberries, et cetera — but I think the association of grapes being the near-flavorless bits of watery fruit we get at the supermarket would make anyone wonder why you would bother.

The resulting pie (based on this deceptively-titled recipe), was decidedly not “the world’s greatest,” but it was definitely my greatest pie. Which isn’t saying much, as I have only made two pies in my entire life, but it is progress in the right direction.

And lastly, rather than offer you a boring old recipe written down, here are two videos detailing my pie making experience. The first is the making of the filling and dough, and the second is assembling (and eating) said pie — both were filmed and edited by my kid, age six.