The secret healing power of grapes

Are you eating enough grapes and drinking enough unsweetened grape juice, made preferably from homegrown grapes? Natural grape juice is surprisingly sweet, even with no sugar added.

If the answer is yes

… then you’re in good company for avoiding high blood pressure issues. There’s even research that grapes help maintain a healthy heart, repair signs of heart muscle damage, improve heart function and reduce inflammation.

It’s not my imagination saying it is so, either. A group of studies, including those published in the October issue of the Journal Of Gerontology, suggest there’s strong evidence grapes indeed offer a bunch of ways to help hearts.

The data adds even more evidence to a quickly accumulating body of knowledge about the health benefits of grapes. There’s indication seeds of grape berries may also help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, so you might want to pay a visit to your health food store.

But don’t wait

… until Valentine’s Day either. Your body is an absolute miracle and your brain a human computer. If grapes, sugar-free grape juice, raisins and currants aren’t already a part of your regular dietary regimen, what are you waiting for?

And get this! A group of college students say they are creating a so-called bio-beer with resveratrol. It’s a substance in grapes shown to reduce cancer and heart disease. It will be a while however, before any of the new brew will be available for consumption.

The highest concentration of resveratrol is in the skin and seeds of wine-making grapes. Known as a phytoalexin, resveratrol belongs to a class of antibiotic compounds produced as part of a grape plant’s defence system against disease. Peanuts and other berries are among a handful of plant foods that contain some resveratrol.

Prairie hardy grapes

… will be available at your garden centre again come spring. Some varieties to search out are: Beta, Bluebell, Eona, Frontenac, Minnesota 78, Severnji and Valiant.

Manitoba Native grapes produce super hardy vines, and I have a goodly number of them. They require absolutely minimal maintenance, except some pruning for control. Remember, this is a very vigorous native grape, originally found growing in a natural wild environment. If left to ramble, the vines will spread four or five metres and cascade onto anything that provides a support.

Absolutely no winter protection is required for these vines regardless of where they’re left hanging. They perform beautifully along a fence, up a wall and make an excellent trellis cover, but need to be kept in check.

Wouldn’t you know home wine makers can’t get enough of Manitoba Native grapes. The berries are small and seeded, but also make excellent juice and jelly.

I was picking grapes close to the end of October. Some were nipped a bit by frost.

If I were into making ice wine (which I’m not) they’d have been perfect.

Meet Delta resident

… June Tomalin, who doesn’t mind deer in her yard at all, even year-round. She has observed “as many as four or more at times” and feeds them “with hay and oats, moreso during winter.”

June enjoys watching deer through the window. “They’re not scared of humans at all,” she told me, nor of her St. Bernard dog. In summer, the garden area is fenced off to keep the deer out. Lilac bushes are among the list of so-called deer-resistant plants named in my Oct. 25 column. But remember, that doesn’t mean totally deer-repellent nor deer-proof, as I pointed out.

In June Tomalin’s case, the deer didn’t seem to mind eating the leaves off her three lilac trees. Maybe they were sweet leaves or an acquired taste. The long and the short of it is: very few plants are totally deer-proof, especially if the deer are really hungry.

Also, a deer’s appetite can vary depending on its range and area in combination with local plants, shrubs and trees in your yard. If there’s good variety, deer favour certain plants over others.

Here are some other plants not on the initial list, deemed to be avoided by deer: asparagus, tuberous begonia, barberry, catnip, chives, foxglove, hosta, impatiens, iris, mints, salvia and zinnia.