Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-24

| ana tCtnCS cen mn heart,
| Wine dat eeS maxim me
SO druHh as I can be
And so she's better man,
Il better man dan nc.
THE CONCORD GRAPE is plenteously
! In our midst and Little Italy is busy
making wine The grapes began to come
| into market ten days ago and will keep
| coming for ten days more, so we're in the
exact middle of things
J. Wallace Hallowcll. who has watched
the swarming Of the Italian grape buy
crs for many years, tells us they're as
numerous and as eager as ever. although
the grape crops shorter than usual and
prices are 80 per cent higher. The
twentypound basket which cost sixty
cents last year is eighty cents now. But
the Italians come with bags of miscel-
laneous coins, from pennies to gold pieces,
and gladly swap them for the purple
clusters. Mr.. Hallowell remarked one
buyer, young woman, who flashed a
crisp one.hundred-dolla bill and spent
it all She was probably buying for a
community.
Groups of families in Little Italy and
in smaller settlements in Nicetown.
Manayunk, Germantown and other sub
urbs pool their issues not only for the
purchase Of the grapes but for the actual
wine-making. Many prefer to go it alone
even the bachelor VINO has no thought
beyond his own quart a day-but there's
go, g,, 80, d,
is to attach yourself to a large and har-
monious group and share the jollities Of
the community wine-making. Or if you
can't do that, horn in upon some large
family whose yearly needs amount to
nine or ten barrels. We know of one
large group here whose members come
from "A northern province famous for its
wines and who tread out the Juice of the
grape in the primitive old.country way.
We can't invite you in, but, without
naming any names, we can tell you
something about this pleasant old-world
business which Is even now going for.
ward in this alien neighborhood.
The community tank into which the
grapes are gathered has a capacity of
something like 10000 gallons. That
means therell be something like eighty
or ninety tons of grapes waiting for the
foot Of the presser, who now enters. He
jumps into the tank quicily--and, we
may add, lightly-being handicapped by
nothing in the nature of apparel, scorn'
ing even the ivy chaplet of BacChus,
which he might properly have put on.
This solitary official dances over the
grapes for the space Of ten or fifteen min
utes to soften them, and that's all there
is to the first chapter.
Chapter two opens a day or two later
when the grapes have begun to ferment
There are now three or four treaders
busy in the tank. Their uniform is only
a trife more cumbersome than that of |
the hero Of chapter one. With their bare |
feet they crush the grapes, and the bung |
now being open permits the juice to begin |
flowing into watts in waiting about twelve |
feet long by three feet wide. This is the |
big day and the work is usually begun at |
about o'clock in the afternoon and goes |
on steadily until = in the morning.
The treaders begin upon those grapes |
W
work round to those nearest to the bung. |
When all the grapes have shed their |
blood, the hardest labor of all begins
the tearing up of the stems and skins into |
small pieces. This is done with the heels |
and it's got to be done thoroughly for |
this mash, or "grappa," is to be mixed |
with the juice drawn off into the vats |
and left to ferment; for that's what gives |
the tartness to the wine.
That, then, is the big days work; and |
when it's over, say, at a. m. or there.
abouts, everybody washes up and sits in |
at the feast. And this, to be regular |
"old country" must consist of poIentd |
corn meal mush), cdrdo Ia ,histle-like |
plant, or let's say, overgrown celery |
dipped in btdniG Cdldd IA sauce made of |
olive oil, butter. garlic and anchovies) |
If it's an extra swell affair there'll be |
rdUioH Qittle biscuits stuffed with chop |
ped meat. OF course, too, some of the !
previous years wine
Now in a day or so the new wine be- |
gins TO ferment and the mash has to be |
kept down IN the Vats It's fiery stuff |
and constantly tries to get over the top. |
Also, if it isn't occasionally wet down with |
some old wine it's likely to commit spon-
taneous combustion and just ruin every
thing. After two or three days, however
it behaves and in from twelve to fifteen
days the wine is ready to be drawn off |
into barrels and sealed up for the winter;
that is, until the old moon of February
Quna vecchia) when it is bottled and laid
away.
This operation, on the grand or the
small scale, is going forward in thou
sands of places hereabouts and keeping
the Italians happily busy this week.
A statement issued by the Tile Layers
and Helpers, explaining their side of their