UNROMANTIC RAISIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1938, Page 8

UNROMANTIC RAISIN

STORY OF A. “WORTHLESS VINE.”

There are few objects so unromantic looking as a wizened, dried-up raisin. But the same humble raisin provides one of the most romantic stories in the fruit industry.

Three-quarters of the million tons of grapes that are dried each year to produce California’s raisin crop are of a variety that were, once thrown away as worthless. They were worthless —as grapes. But the very characteristics that made them useless as grapes ensured their success as raisins.

Sixty years ago William Thompson decided to try growing grapes on his farm in California. He bought three cuttings. Two bore well, the third, of a Turkish variety, produced heavy foliage, but few grapes in poorly developed clusters. Next season, after the usual pruning, the latter variety grew plenty of new wood and leaves, but no grapes at all.

Thompson decided the vine was worthless, and willingly gave a neighbour called Onstott a cutting to provide shade for the latter’s arbour. Onstott planted it, and, because it was being grown for shade, did not prune it. The next year it bore such a heavy crop of seedless grapes that it broke down the arbour. So it was learned that while other vines needed pruning to yield well, this particular variety would not yield at all if pruned. The grapes from this vine proved superior to any other so-called seedless grapes grown in California, and made remarkably fine raisins. Cuttings from it were distributed throughout the State —and so it came about that Thompson’s “worthless” vine provides you with the Californian seedless raisins you eat today.