According to research from produce industry newspaper and website, The Packer, more than 60% of consumers have added grapes to their shopping cart at least once in the last 12 months. 

The Packer’s Fresh Trend research also reported that grapes are especially popular among older demographics (73%) and upper class households (68%), with green seedless grapes being the most often purchased variety. 

Here at Pretty Lady Grapes, we hope to make grapes accessible to younger demographics and more middle class families by continuing to share unique recipe ideas with our customers and making sure consumers know how to get the most mileage out of our product, thereby ensuring our grapes are a cost-effective, healthy, tasty, and fun treat.

Did You Know?

There are easy kitchen hacks that can help naturally extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. This article from Natural Wellness outlines several tips. Among them is something called “heat shocking”:

“Run your tap water until it is hot, but not very hot, and fill a large pot about 2/3 of the way. The temperature should be between 105-140 degrees (F)… Hold the fruit or veggie in the water (the time varies depending on what it is), drain, dry and refrigerate. “

The recommendation for heat shocking grapes is 8 minutes.

There are also multiple ways to salvage over-ripe grapes for other things outside of eating straight out of the container. This article from Wine Coutnry Gift Baskets lists five of them. Some of our favorites? Juice ‘em, Freeze ‘em, or Roast ‘em! 

Get Funky

One of our favorite thing about grapes is how versatile they are; in fact, we have multiple brands and 16 varieties, straight out of the bag!

Because grapes are so simple and easy to enjoy raw and unadorned, people sometimes forget that they actually make a great flavor addition to so many different types of cuisine – sweet or savory, from appetizers to main courses to desserts.

Here is a wonderful article from Brit + Co featuring 18 unconventional ways to use grapes. Especially take advantage of four of our favorites: 

• Roasted Grape, Goat Cheese and Honey Stuffed Sweet Potatoes by How Sweet Eats

• Grape and Prosciutto Crostini by My Food Book

• Cucumber Salad with Grapes and Poppyseed Dressing by Oh Sweet Basil

• Fig and Grape Tart by Kitchen Confidante

For more recipe ideas, visit our own Recipe Page. It features fun creative ideas, like these baked pancake skillets, made with our Hobgoblin grapes.

For more on grape consumption in America, check out the latest episode of Millennials Eat with The Packer copy editor and designer, Amelia Freidline, and retail editor, Ashley Nickle.