Wild grapes are good, but for what?

 

Fox grape (V. labrusca), Summer grape (V. aestivalis), and Riverbank grape (V. riparia) are wild grapes, tough, and bitter, but oh how lovely and floral their smell wafts when ripe sunlit berries fill the valley; I'm told that they make a fine jelly.

As for me, on a hot sweaty hike the fruit is tasty, but tough, and spitting out the seeds is no problem; the skins at first are a bit bitter, though tasty, but soon morph into a tannic storm as to make any Bordeaux blush.
I've always noticed and "eaten" wild grapes (thank you God), but this year they are ubiquitous and in some places overwhelming to other species of plants; well, better than purple loosestrife.

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