2024 PRICES at the Farm

FRESH PICKED GRAPES

peck (10 lbs.)             $ 18.50    $1.85/pound

½ bushel (20 lbs.)     $ 37.00    $1.85/pound

1 bushel (40 lbs.)      $ 64.00    $1.60/pound

PICK-YOUR-OWN GRAPES

peck (10 lbs.)            $ 13.00   $1.30/pound

½ bushel (20 lbs.)     $ 24.00   $1.20/pound

1 bushel (40 lbs.)      $ 44.00   $1.10/pound

5 bushel or more      $ 40.00    $1.00/pound

This Augusta Community Guide — Spring/Summer 2024

Wenger Family Brings the Taste of Childhood to the Valley,” story by Heather Cole, was published in the Spring/Summer 2024 edition of This Augusta Community Guide.

Grape juice. Grape jelly. Grape candy. When you think of the grape flavor of your favorite childhood treats, it likely bears little resemblance to the thin-skinned, crunchy, red or white (and often imported) table grapes that are available year-round at your local grocery store. Instead, the flavor that most people recognize as grape is that of the Concord grape: tangy, sweet, a bit musky and undeniably grapey. “It is a sweet, old-timey grape flavor,” says Wendy Wenger Hochstedler, proprietor of Wenger’s Grapes, a family-run vineyard in Waynesboro, Virginia.

Unfortunately, Concord grapes have a short harvest season and don’t transport well, so they can be more difficult to find than their heartier cousins. But for three to four weeks every September, these little purple bursts of nostalgia are available at the Wenger Grapes farm, either fresh off the vines or as pick-your-own.

Mark and Wendy Hochstedler
Mark and Wendy Wenger Hochstedler are third-generation owners of the farm

Wendy and her husband, Mark, are the third generation of the Wenger family growing grapes in Augusta County. Wendy’s grandfather, Paul Wenger, learned the trade from his father and began growing grapes on family land in 1938. Eighty-six years later, the Wengers continue the tradition of providing Concord and other American hybrid grape varieties to local wineries, farmers markets and grocery stores and directly to consumers at their 24-acre vineyard.

Wendy says that the flavor of fresh Concord grapes brings back childhood memories for many visitors to the farm. Among those is Waynesboro resident Marilyn Burkholder, who has been coming to the Wenger farm since the 1990s.

A young child picking grapes in the vineyard
You’re never too young to pick grapes

“We had four daughters and would take them out in the wagon to pick grapes,” Burkholder says. “We would load up a couple of baskets of grapes and the girls would run around the vines. It was always a fun time.”

Burkholder says she grew up eating Concord grapes. For the inexperienced, however, eating a Concord grape can be a bit of an adventure. Unlike the familiar seedless table grapes, Concord grapes have thick purple skin that covers a pulpy interior and a center of small seeds. Wendy describes the trick to them:

“First you pull a grape off the bunch and hold it between your thumb and first finger. Then you squeeze it, so the pulp bursts into your mouth with all its flavor and sweetness. The peel will slide right off. You can swallow the pulp and seeds whole. And then, if you want, you can chew the skin.”

Fresh Picked and Pick Your Own banner at the farm
Pick up or pick your-own makes for a fun outing

In addition to eating them fresh off the vines, Concord grapes are also great for making juice or jelly, and both products are often for sale at the Wenger’s farm stand. Wenger grapes can also be found in the wines produced by several Virginia wineries, including Rockbridge Vineyard and Brewery in Raphine. According to Dianne Rankin, Rockbridge Vineyard’s tasting room manager, their most popular sweet wine is Jeremiah’s, a rose blend of the Wenger’s Concord grapes and Vidal Blanc, a white hybrid grape. Wenger’s grapes are also used to make their Lexington & Concord, a sweet red wind that Rockbridge Vineyards describes as “grown up grape juice.”

Concord grapes are native to North America and are named for the town in Massachusetts where they were first cultivated from wild grapes in 1849. Twenty years later, a New Jersey dentist named Thomas Welch converted 40 pounds of Concord grapes into fruit juice for his local church and the rest is history.

Concord grapes are now mostly grown in upstate New York, southwestern Michigan and Washington state. They are among the group of grapes known as “slip-skin,” meaning that their skins are easily removed. They also grow on their own root stock – rather than via grafting – which makes them better able to adapt to the climate in the Shenandoah Valley. But even that native adaptability has its limits, as the Wengers have seen with the increase in climate volatility.

Man driving tractor filled with full grape bins
Harvest time is busy and plentiful

“It has been a bit of a rollercoaster these last few years,” Mark says, describing a series of extreme weather events that damaged the grape crops in three out of the past four years. 2020 brought a May freeze that impacted the fall crop; a hailstorm came through the farm in April 2021; and another deep freeze hit early last year.

“But our customers have been resilient,” Mark says, adding that ninety percent of the visitors to the farm are repeat customers. The Wenger Grapes’s customers come from across Virginia, Maryland and the mid-Atlantic area, and many families come year after year.

Wendy grew up on the grape farm when it was run by her parents, Dave and Mim Wenger, and remembers that her mother loved to entertain. Wendy says she sees the farm stand and pick-your-own activities as an extension of her family’s hospitality. “I love it when people are here,” Wendy says. “I love seeing all the different people.”

When asked why they continue despite the challenges at the farm, Wendy speaks both about the nostalgia of carrying on a family tradition and the importance of teaching people about the sources of their food.

“There are not a whole lot of places left where you can go to a farm and pick your own produce,” Wendy says. “It is a ton of work. But it lets us carry on a tradition and help people connect to the earth. We look forward to having people on the farm for many years to come.”

Grapes ready for sale
Grapes ready for sale

Wenger Grapes is located at 4094 Stuarts Draft Highway in Waynesboro, about two miles west of the intersection with 1-64. Depending on the weather, Concord grape harvest season usually begins around Labor Day and continues through the month of September. During harvest season, the farm stand and pick-yourown is open Monday through Saturday from 8:00 a.m. until dark.

Visit their website for details: https://wengergrapes.com

Concord Grape juice — 3-piece steamer method

Fill the bottom layer of a 3-piece steamer with water. Put washed grapes in the top of the steamer. Cover with lid. Cook on medium heat on stovetop until juice starts to accumulate in the middle portion of the steamer.

When enough juice has accumulated to fill a jar, hold a canning jar with an oven mitt under the drain valve on the center portion of the steamer. (Or alternatively, put the jar on a stool below the steamer so that the hose reaches into the jar.) Open the value and allow juice to fill jar.  Leave 1/4 inch headspace for pints and quarts.

Continue steaming the grapes to remove all the juice, and fill jars as juice accumulates.  Frequently and carefully check the bottom layer of the steamer to refill water as needed.

Process jars in a boiling water bath for five minutes. 

1 bushel grapes makes 15-20 quarts concentrated juice. Drink concentrated, or dilute with water or seltzer and sweeten to taste.

Concord Grape Juice — jar method

Place one to two cups grapes in a quart jar and add ½ cup sugar. Fill the jar with hot water, seal, and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

1 bushel grapes makes 50-75 quarts dilute juice. Not as rich of flavor as the concentrate made from the kettle or steamer method, but much faster and less mess.

Concord Grape Juice — kettle method

Put washed grapes in a large kettle and crush them. Add only a small amount of water to keep from sticking. Cook the grapes until the skins pop off. Cook at a low boil. Strain the juice, either through cheese cloth bag or a strainer. Put in canning jars and process in a boiling water bath for five minutes.

Sweetener may be added before sealing or when ready to use. Diluting this juice 2 parts juice to 1 part seltzer water with a squeeze of fresh orange makes a refreshing summer drink.

1 bushel grapes makes 15-20 quarts concentrated juice. Dilute to taste.

Good to the last drop: After juice is removed from the cooked grapes, put remaining pulp through a vegetable strainer or push through a fine sieve with a spoon to remove the seeds.  Use this thick pulpy juice in Concord jam, pie or tapioca recipes.

3. DO YOU SPRAY YOUR GRAPES?

Because of the high humidity and temperatures during the late spring and summer months here in the eastern United States, it is more difficult to control fungal diseases like downey mildew, powdery mildew, and black rot. The primary insects pests include Japanese Beetle and Grape Berry Moth. We refer to the Virginia Tech Spray Guide for American hybrid grape varieties for our spraying. We have found over the years that watching the weather and spraying at critical times allows us to get by with spraying less often and with less spray material. We attempt to do a more thorough job of spraying early in the season. When this is done, we have found that we do not need to spray a number of the later season sprays that would result in residue buildup on the berries. Typically, our last sprays are put on mid to late July, and our harvest begins in early September. This provides 4-8 weeks of rains and sunlight to the bunches before they are harvested.

We strive to learn more about how to minimize the use of sprays on the grapes and to use materials that are safer for ourselves, our customers, and the environment.