This week’s weekly photo challenge is “Prolific“. The word takes me back to 2015. Back then we all lived in a residential neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. One of our favourite things about it was a large, shady balcony overlooking the street below.

Over the course of the year the vines on the railing grew more lush and green and eventually started to bear fruit. Unlike many wild grapes I’d seen before, they were big, sweet, and juicy and there were lots of them.

One weekend I gathered all I could reach from the balcony. Then, inspired, I went out to nearby alleys. On my runs I had seen many neglected and prolific grape vines there. I filled two more grocery bags full of fresh grapes.

I brought them all home, washed them, and then loaded them in to my juicer. I ended up with a lot of juice, as well as a bin full of seeds and skins which I discarded. Then, with the addition of some sugar and pectin I ended up with homemade grape jelly – all from grapes grown within a few hundred feet of my home – in the middle of Canada’s biggest city.