Searching for Scuppernongs

On a gloomy, cold Tuesday morning, the second/third grade class navigated their way from Woodlawn School to a local scuppernong orchard. What is a scuppernong and why were the students looking for them? Scuppernongs are a variety of muscadine which were the nation's first cultivated wine grape. The first record of these grapes comes from the log book of Giovanni da Verrazano, a French explorer, who in 1524 discovered them in the Cape Fear River Valley.

The students discovered them just off of West Catawba Avenue in Cornelius as a part of their study of natural resources. They burrowed under the tunnels of scuppernong vines searching for the ripe grapes. They searched high and low for the green and purple firm fruit. Their quest yielded 12 and a half pounds of the grapes, enough to make juice for the Halloween activities on Friday the thirty first of October.