Even before harvest, grape vines produce big fleshy leaves you can use to wrap various stuffings, and you can crush unfermented grapes to make verjuice ( if you prefer), a tart liquid similar to vinegar but not as harsh. And like egg-laying chickens sent to the oven when the eggs stop a-coming, you can always turn non-fruit-bearing vines into firewood. You may need to wait a while, though: some one-hundred-fifty-year-old Zinfandel vines in Amador county continue to produce grapes.

There are zillions of varieties of grapes, but the ones we've seen most often at the market are green Thompson Seedless and red Flame Seedless, the latter being the ones that decimated the Flame Tokay industry so crucial to Lodi's economy in the early part of the twentieth century. We've also spotted the Black Monukka, a flavorful and deeply colored grape.

Photos by Melissa Schneider

verjus