While doing research for my 2012 book The Wineslinger Chronicles: Texas on the Vine, I discovered a once thriving wine culture from the late-1800s located about an hour west of Houston. This culture came to Texas via European immigrant farmers – Germans, Czechs, French and Italians – based on their love of wine as a part of their everyday lives.

These settlers brought vines from their homelands, but they succumb to local vineyard diseases and climate. Fortunately, they found and used wild native Texas grapes – Mustang and Muscadine – to make their wine. Later, they used hybrid grapes that now, over a hundred years later, are spawning a rebirth of this wine region with new vineyards and wineries. I recently related this story (A Taste of Texas Wine History) in Edible Houston.

During my research, I met local resident Ms Earline Drumm, a descendent of 1800s Colorado County grape grower and winemaker John Berger. During our visit, she served me something that I didn’t realize even existed – Green Grape Pie.

Drumm said, “My dad (John Berger’s son) always spoke of the Green Grape Pie his mother made. I wanted to make it for him and looked around for a recipe and found this one that my dad said was similar. I adapted this one from the one I found in The Second Typically Texas Cookbook, a collection of recipes from rural electric cooperative member consumers and employees (1989).”

In Texas pioneering days, springtime was not a time when dessert fruits were available. However, sugar from local mills was plentiful and could be used to sweeten the readily available but still very tart green Mustang grapes. 

Unfortunately, this year we’ve had a cool wet Spring and local Mustang grapes were not available. One of the grapes grown commercially in southeastern Texas and used for winemaking is Blanc Du Bois. Blanc Du Bois is a hybrid grape composed primarily of native grapes crossed with a European Muscat grape. However, like the wild grapes, the cultivated grapes in local vineyards were also not available. 

Frances Pontasch, Texas A&M AgriLife Program Specialist in Viticulture helped me locate some green Blanc Du Bois grapes from farther south in warmer conditions near The Rio Grande Valley. She contacted Art and Melissa Delgado owners of Bonita Flats Farm and Vineyard in Los Fresnos near Brownsville. After returning from her next visit to The Valley, Pontasch presented me with a plastic bag of small green Blanc Du Bois grapes from the Delgado’s vineyard. 

After tasting the very green palate-popping acidic grapes, I questioned the sanity of my green grape pie escapade. But still, I mixed the ingredients, filled the pie crust and placed the pie in the oven. I intently watch as the crust darkened, and the contents of the pie started to bubble and ooze out the sides. I removed the pie, waited an hour for it to cool, and then cut my first piece. 

The pie had a tartness stemming from the unripe grapes with a flavor similar to that of apple or pineapple pie enhanced by the sweetness of the custard and a slight tactile crunch found in blackberry desserts. I added a flourish of vanilla ice cream and settled back to enjoy my Texas pioneer’s delicacy.

After I indicated that my intent was to make my own pie, Drumm shared her recipe with me: