It’s a magical blend of Deep South charm and rich history
with today’s vigor and
tomorrow’s promise. It’s not the Olympic Games. But it will
arrive before the luckiest
Olympic guests have to leave for their homes.

It’s muscadine time.

"The first south Georgia muscadines should be ripe the
first of August," said
Gerard Krewer, a horticulturist with the University of Georgia
Extension Service.

These lusty grapes are a true treat of the Old South. Native
Americans relished them
long before Europeans came and called the place Georgia. Early
settlers, unable to get
their own European grapes to grow, began cultivating muscadines
and soon learned to love
their mellow sweetness.

Time and painstaking study have only improved nature’s favor,
Krewer said. Today’s best
muscadines are bigger than a quarter and sinfully sweet.

Georgia has 1,000 acres of commercial muscadine vineyards,
most for fresh-market
grapes. Krewer figures at least twice that many grow in the
state’s backyards.

They come in a kaleidoscope of colors, he said, from red to
bronze to purple to black.
Among the bronze, Fry, Summit and Tara are prized as fresh
fruit. Scuppernong and Carlos
are noted for their fine dessert wines. Many others are
wonderful in wines, jellies and
syrups. Olympic visitors were able to buy muscadine cider and
preserves.

And you know what really tops it all? They’re health food.
The more scientists explore
them, the more good things they find in them.

Krewer cites a number of studies by Mississippi State
researcher Betty Ector. The
latest, published this year, shows muscadines contain
resveratrol, a substance believed to
help prevent heart disease.

Earlier studies show them high in fiber, iron, calcium,
manganese and zinc.

"Some people even claim muscadines are an
aphrodisiac," Krewer said with a
wink. "But there haven’t been any scientific studies on
that effect that I know
of."

Muscadines grow well throughout Georgia except in the high
mountains. They’re best
planted in the dormant season. County Extension Service agents
can tell you how to grow
them.

Muscadines’ arrival this year will mark the coming and going
of the Summer Olympics.
But it’s nothing new. For centuries they’ve signaled the winding
down of summer and the
coming of fall.

"Before the last muscadine is ripe, the frost will be on
the pumpkin," Krewer
said. "These grapes are one of the great treats of life in
the Deep South. Never has
something so good for you tasted so good."