grape expectations

we first saw what was to become our new home in march, 2004. among the attractive outdoor amenities was a line of four grape vines supported by wires between steel fence posts, in a standard sort of arrangement. the vines looked vigorous, but the owners told us that the deer always ate most of the grapes. we moved here at the end of june, 2004. the deer ate not only all the grapes, but all the foliage as well. we fenced the yard in the early spring of 2005. we let the vines grow however they wanted that year. no pruning. they grew a lot of foliage but hardly any grapes. we pruned early this year, trying to tame the unruly mass of vines. we kept the large vines and left two buds on each spur.
this year's growth looks great. the row is a bit over twenty feet long. there are four plants with multiple vines growing out of each. we noticed early that there were lots of grapes forming.

here is one of the four growing bases. the vines are quite sturdy.

amazing grapes. grapes of joy!

grapes are in the family vitaceae. we don't know what sort of grapes we have. we think they are green when ripe, as we got one (1) or two (2) grapes to eat last year, and they were green and seemed ripe. wikipedia lists 24 species. science may be saying that red wine is a positive health ingredient. well, we knew that! more science. most grapes grown are used to produce wine, which figures in politics. and then of course there is the famous latin adage "in vino veritas" which translates roughly as "in wine, truth," or, inebriated humans tend to blurt out their secret inner thoughts (think mel gibson as a recent example). i found out years ago that i am a maudlin drunk, professing love for everyone. it has been years since my vino has evoked that much veritas.