Thomcord Grapes: Faux Fruit — or Fabuloso?

Well, you'll be the judge, won't you, when this new hybrid grape (above) arrives in your supermarket's produce department sometime during the next few years.

It's a cross between a Concord grape (purple, with seeds and a distinct flavor) and a Thompson grape (green, seedless and neutral in flavor).

What horticulturalist David W. Ramming — leader of the grape breeding studies group at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center, part of the Agricultural Research Service — got during his initial experiments in the 1980s was a mish-mash: some grapes were white with Concord flavor, some were purple without flavor, some had seeds and some were seedless.

But one was special: it was purple, had Concord flavor and no seeds.

Ramming called it A29-67 (catchy, what?) and played with it for 17 years, fine-tuning it until the fruit was reliably delicious, firm and easy enough to harvest to make it commercially competitive.

He succeeded.

According to Guy Gugliotta's item in the June 19 Washington Post "Science Notebook," Thomcords "are a staple of Central Valley [California] farmer's markets and should soon be in California supermarkets."

Ramming's work was reported on June 16 by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.