Picked about 70 lb of them today...only took 6 hours. :^) The problem is
the clusters are very small and scattered. The good thing is the way I
picked them they were already stemmed when they hit the bucket :^). Hoping
to get enough juice to make 10 gallons, not sure. My recipe cuts the raw
wine in half with water after primary to get the high acidity down. I
picked with latex gloves but forearms are still burning. Did I mention high
acidity? Was hoping to pick 80 lb but I ran out of sun, and picking by
artificial light was not really doable. Oh well, I do have some gallon jars
if I can't make the second carboy. I did this once before, last year, and 6
months into the process I had an unfortunate accident with the carboy and 5
gallons of some potentially great wine was spilled back to the earth. That
was my very first attempt at wine making too... kind of disheartening, but
taken in stride. I have practiced with mead, prickly pear, and Welch's (red
and white) while awaiting the grapes to ripen again, and so it starts. Wish
me luck... please? :^)

Quixote

I wish you luck. Of all the many types of wine I have made over 35 years,
wild mustang has been my biggest disapointment. I have tried it 3 times and
been disapointed each time. I know Jack Keller says it wins awards but I
have not mastered it. It does make some GREAT jelly, it is easy to pick,
and it is free. It is also the only fruit that I seem to be alergic to. If
even the least amount of raw juice gets on my skin I break out in blisters.
I use surgical goves to protect myself but the still get me.

Anyway, good luck and let us know.

Ray

"Quixote" wrote in message
...
Picked about 70 lb of them today...only took 6 hours. :^) The problem is
the clusters are very small and scattered. The good thing is the way I
picked them they were already stemmed when they hit the bucket :^).
Hoping to get enough juice to make 10 gallons, not sure. My recipe cuts
the raw wine in half with water after primary to get the high acidity
down. I picked with latex gloves but forearms are still burning. Did I
mention high acidity? Was hoping to pick 80 lb but I ran out of sun, and
picking by artificial light was not really doable. Oh well, I do have
some gallon jars if I can't make the second carboy. I did this once
before, last year, and 6 months into the process I had an unfortunate
accident with the carboy and 5 gallons of some potentially great wine was
spilled back to the earth. That was my very first attempt at wine making
too... kind of disheartening, but taken in stride. I have practiced with
mead, prickly pear, and Welch's (red and white) while awaiting the grapes
to ripen again, and so it starts. Wish me luck... please? :^)

Quixote