Bring your bowl. Stuff it with Concords, Sultanas, Niagaras, Moon Drops, and Sweet Jubilees.

Mmm. That’s grape. (Get it?)

It’s also berries. Grapes are berries.

If you follow the rules of botany, a berry has seeds and pulp. It also comes from a single ovary in a flower. Pumpkins, bananas, grapes, avocados, and cucumbers all count as berries. (Weird!)

What’s NOT a berry?

Drupes. Peaches, plums, cherries, olives. Does it have a stony pit? If yes, it’s a drupe.

Accessory fruits. Strawberries, figs, pineapples. Accessory fruits don’t come only from the plant’s ovary (flower). At least part of these sprout from some other part of the plant. Pomes such as apples and pears have cores. They are accessory fruits too.

Aggregate fruits. Raspberries, blackberries. These type of fruits form when many plant ovaries join into one flower.

Can you believe that strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are actually not true berries? Are any “berries” actually berries? Yes! Blueberries are—in name and in fact.

Life from the Vine

Grapes can be used to make:

• jam
• jelly
• juice
• wine
• pie
• raisins
• vinegar
• oil (from the seeds)

Some grapes have seeds. Others don’t. Some, called table grapes, have a thin skin pleasant to eat. Others, called wine grapes, have a thick skin. Most people spit out these skins but swallow the gooey middle. Grapes can make your lips smack with sweetness or pucker with sourness. They come in green, purple, black, yellow, and red.

Grapes grow on vines. These climbing tendrils carry to the fruit and leaves all the nutrients they need. Just one Concord grape vine can produce about 20 pounds of fruit per year. One vine can live for 40 years. Jesus uses the vine to tell us something: He gives us all we need. We can do nothing without Him.