A grape is the non-climacteric fruit, botanically a true berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, drugs, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, and grape seed oil. Grapes are also used in some kinds of confectionery.

Grapes grow in clusters of 6 to 300, and can be crimson, black, dark blue, yellow, green and pink. “White” grapes are actually green in color, and are evolutionarily derived from the purple grape. Mutations in two regulatory genes of white grapes turn off production of anthocyanins which are responsible for the color of purple grapes. Anthocyanins and other pigment chemicals of the larger family of polyphenols in purple grapes are responsible for the varying shades of purple in red wines.

For more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapes

http://www.saskfruit.com/studentwebsites/Grapes%20Fagnou/Fruit_webpage/Grapes_grower_page.html

http://gardenline.usask.ca/fruit/grape.html

http://www.albertafarmfresh.com/grapes-report.pdf

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Prairie Fruit.