My husband's favorite snack food:
 
These little marble-like fruits are a veritable of health and nutrition, easy to eat, no cooking required as well as very tasty. Grapes!
 
As a child, this time of the year we would spend a day or more in the Oklahoma woods - climbing trees that these delectable vines choose as their clinging/climbing post - picking wild grapes that was then made into pies, jam, jellies and preserves by my mother and grandmother. I almost always ended up with poison oak or poison Ivy over my body, as the trees that wild grapes grow on tend to harbor those bits of painful culprits as well, but the suffering was well worth the harvest!

Thousands of grape varieties have been developed, with 5,000 reported for V. vinifera alone, they differ in such characteristics as color, size, shape and flavor.
 
High in Fiber with lots of great Minerals, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, Zinc, Copper, Manganese. Also  Vitamins A, B-12, B-6, C, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic acid, Folate, Folic acid and Retinol... Full of health producing antioxidants, proanthocyanidins and Resveratrol.
 
Health benefits still being established but so far are known to be huge!
 
The antioxidants in grapes not only effect blood clotting, they protect collagen and elastin in the skin, and we are now seeing some cosmetic creams. Making them great skin builders as they stabilize capillary walls, helping with micro-circulation, and showing possible benefits for varicose veins.
 
Allergies and more treatment?
 
Could be, as the last few years of studies show evidence about the effect Proanthocyanidins have on allergies, a use for them that is already widespread in Europe, appear to block the production of histamine and to the extent that allergies are involved in ADHD, this may provide a possible explanation for their successful help in that problem.
 
Resveratrol  is one of a group of compounds, called phytoalexins, that has been identified grapes and found in the skin, not flesh, of grapes. A study by Pezzuto and colleagues are finding that Resveratrol is effective during all three phases of the cancer process: initiation, promotion and progression. Resveratrol was found to have antioxidant and antimutagenic activity and also increased levels of the phase II drug-metabolizing enzyme quinone reductase, an enzyme capable of metabolically detoxifying carcinogens, thereby ridding them from the body. Resveratrol is found mostly in red or black grapes.
 
Dr. John Folts M.D., at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, has been focusing on the connection between grapes and heart disease. His research has suggested that grapes may have a more protective anti-clotting effect than aspirin - the figures showed that aspirin and red wine both had anti-clotting activity of 45%, but then went on to show a whopping 75% effect from ordinary grape juice!
 
History of Grapes
 
Details of grape growing figure in the mosaics of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt (2440 B.C.) and earlier. From Asia Minor, the culture of grapes spread both east and west. Before 600 B.C., the Phoenicians probably carried wine varieties to Greece, thence to Rome and on to southern France. Early written accounts of grapes and wine production are found in the writings of Virgil, Cato, the Plinys, and columella. Virgil describes 15 varieties while Pliiny gives even fuller descriptions of 91 varieties and distinguishes 50 kinds of wine. No later than the 2nd century A.D., the Romans took the vine to Germany. Some believe the vine was introduced into England by the Romans, while others believe it was first brought by the Phoenicians. The earliest English chronicle make mention of vineyards and vine culture. Many years later when Europeans colonized new lands, the grape was always among the plants taken along.
 
The first European visitors to North America, the Norsemen, found native grapes so abundant they called the country Vinland. The first English settlers in Virginia found huge quantities of grape vines along the streams, climbing on the trees. However, the fruit was poor compared to the cultivated European grapes.
 
Three men heavily influenced the history of grapes in America: William Wolfskill, Agoston Haraszthy, and William Thompson. In 1839, William Wolfskill, a former trapper from Kentucky, planted the first vineyard of table grapes in California, near what today is Los Angeles. He was the first person to ship grapes to Northern California gold miners.
 
Agoston Haraszthy was an immigrant from Hungary who is often referred to as the father of California viticulture. In the mid1800's, Haraszthy brought one hundred thousand vine cuttings from Europe to California. Unlike Wolfskill, his interest was in wine, so these vine cuttings were for three hundred varieties of wine grapes. In addition to planting them at his own winery, Buena Vista, he sold his imported vine cuttings to growers around the state. 
 
Choosing grapes
 
Grapes are harvested only when fully ripe so they should always be ready to eat when you buy them. Use color as a guide to the sweetness of the fruit. Green grapes should have a yellow cast or straw color with a touch of amber, when fully ripe, not an opaque grassy green color. Red grapes should be a deep crimson, not a milky or pale red. Blue grapes should be darkly hued, almost black, not pale or tinged with green. Grapes should be plump, so avoid any that have lots of underdeveloped, very green fruit. You can always judge the freshness of grapes by the stem. The greener the stem, the fresher the grapes. Grapes should always be firmly attached to their stems. Before storing, remove any spoiled grapes with broken skins or browning from the bunch and keep refrigerated; they should keep a week to ten days. During storage, continue to remove any and all spoiled fruit. Grapes can also be frozen and make a great healthy treat for anyone.
 
Frozen treat instructions;
Put Red Flame or other seedless grapes on a tray or cake pan in the freezer. When frozen, separate them, put them in a resealable plastic bag and return then to the freezer. Then kids can have sweet, frozen snacks anytime.
 
Enjoy this healthy food any time and enjoy greater health!
Lena