This week I’m taking a look at some of the plants associated with Easter week – today it is the grapevine, cultivated for wine, grapes, raisins, and vinegar. For Christians, Maundy Thursday celebrates the Last Supper, where the Rabbi Jesus served wine and unleavened bread to his students, also known as disciples, in an upstairs room. In Luke 22, Jesus describes a new type of covenant, and likens the bread to his body, about to be broken, and the wine to his blood, about to be spilled. He encouraged his disciples to serve one another, rather than seek to be served.
In Jerusalem, the wine would have been made from a variety of Vitis vinifera, the flowering grape. Grapes would not have been grown on a trellis in ancient times, but the vines would have been spread over the ground. Many towns or villages operated stone wine presses, and wine was stored in large clay jars. Grapes grow well in the Mediterranean climate; the hot temperatures sweeten the grapes as they ripen.
Grapes also grow well in the Mediterranean climate of Northern and Southern California. Viticulture flourishes in Napa and Sonoma Valleys, north of the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as many other regions of the state, such as Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Livermore, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Temecula. Grapes grow wild in low desert areas, where water is available. We saw wild grapevines flourishing in Bautista Canyon near Hemet – spreading all over the local flora for support.
Learn More:
Neot Kedumim, The Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel (plant list): http://www.n-k.org.il/public/english/what/trails/plantlist.htm
Old Dominion University (plant list):
In Jerusalem, the wine would have been made from a variety of Vitis vinifera, the flowering grape. Grapes would not have been grown on a trellis in ancient times, but the vines would have been spread over the ground. Many towns or villages operated stone wine presses, and wine was stored in large clay jars. Grapes grow well in the Mediterranean climate; the hot temperatures sweeten the grapes as they ripen.
Grapes also grow well in the Mediterranean climate of Northern and Southern California. Viticulture flourishes in Napa and Sonoma Valleys, north of the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as many other regions of the state, such as Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Livermore, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Temecula. Grapes grow wild in low desert areas, where water is available. We saw wild grapevines flourishing in Bautista Canyon near Hemet – spreading all over the local flora for support.
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| Grapevines at Wente Winery in Livermore. |
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| Tiny grape clusters starting to form in May. |
Learn More:
Neot Kedumim, The Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel (plant list): http://www.n-k.org.il/public/english/what/trails/plantlist.htm
Old Dominion University (plant list):
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