I recently picked wild grapes and found some of them had small worms inside. After some research, I learned they were Grape Berry Moth larvae. I washed the grapes and picked out the gross ones that I could find. My question is this. Should I use the grapes for grape jelly even though they had these inside? Most of them came out during washing (I hope)
I make wild grape jelly every year the crop is good, but I have never searched them for worms. I pick the stems and any other debris like spider webs from them, throw out the bad ones, wash them really well, then mash, cook and stain the juice out. I guess there could have been worms in some of them but since I never saw them and no one ever got sick from eating the jelly, they probably do not have any effect on the finished product. Besides, we all eat more disgusting things than that in some store bought foods every day.
Have you ever watched winemakers crush grapes. They do not sort them. They go into the crusher straight from the big tubs. Stems, green ones, dry ones and whatever else is there. I was told it helps the process. I've forgotten how. Cider is made the same way, they don't cut the apples looking for worms. Hope some people don't quit drinking it now. Dooley
The only thing worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm, is biting into an apple and finding half a worm. I leave the green ones in too, they add a bit of a tang to the flavor that is really good.
Hi Lizzi. It looks as though Toni and Dooley have answered your question about the worms in your grapes. Good luck with the grape jelly. Maybe you could post a piccie once it's made so that we can all drool over it? WELCOME to GardenStew by the way and I hope you'll stay around and join in the fun here. :-D
Thank you for your help. I realize we all eat pretty discusting things we don't know about every day. I'll just make sure that when I give some away to people, I won't mention "the worms." And, thank you for the welcome. I'm sure I'll stick with GardenStew. I always have questions. :-D
As they say - what we don't know won't hurt us Welcome Lizzi, I recommend maybe introducing yourself in the "Welcome to GardenStew" forum. That way we will recognize you again when you have more questions But it's up to you. Regards.