My friend and I were discussing the overabundance of muscadines in her backyard last week when she noted that muscadines are a love/hate food. She happens to be on the hate side of the line, while I am firmly on the love side. Which meant that her overabundance of muscadines has become my abundance of muscadines. It’s a lovely world we live in.

With my first (hopefully there are more forthcoming!) bucket of muscadines from her fence I made a muscadine and honey syrup. It’s sweet, richly purple, and has both the unmistakeable flavor of muscadines with the noticeable undertones of honey. I’ve mixed it into a few cocktails and have plans to pour it over waffles (or pancakes! or both!) as soon as I can put my griddle to good use. I can’t wait to see what else it ends up in, and I’m even more excited for that next bucket of grapes. I’ll keep you posted (I suspect a hull pie is in my near future).

Muscadine & Honey Syrup

1 lb of fresh muscadines

1 cup of water

1 cup of honey

Combine the muscadines and water in a pot and simmer, whole, for 15-20 minutes. Push the muscadines through a fine mesh strainer and return the juice to the pot. Stir in the honey and simmer until combined, 5 minutes. Pour into a lidded bottle and refrigerate.