🍇 Carman

Carman is an American table grape with black berries, bred by T. V. Munson in Denison, Texas. VIVC dates the cross to 1883. According to Hedrick, the variety combines traits of three species: the wild Texas Post-oak grape (Vitis lincecumii), labrusca and the European grape; it was introduced in 1892.

Sources disagree about its parents. VIVC, citing the breeder, gives the pedigree Premier × Triumph, but the link to the parent Premier in the catalogue leads to a white European variety of the same name from Bulgaria (Madeleine Angevine × Muscat Hamburg), so this link is not shown on our page. Hedrick's monograph The Grapes of New York (1908) tells a different story: Munson raised Carman from seed of a wild Post-oak vine taken from the woods and pollinated with mixed pollen of Triumph and Herbemont. Only Triumph is common to both versions.

The variety was named in honour of E. S. Carman, for many years editor of the Rural New Yorker and a plant breeder. Hedrick describes the vine as vigorous and hardy but not very productive. The berries are rather small, round, dark purplish-black to black, glossy, with a blue bloom; the skin is thin and not astringent; the flesh is not juicy, spicy, with a Post-oak flavour, of good to very good quality.

Carman's main merit is its keeping quality: the berries hold well both on the vine and after picking. The variety ripens just before Catawba, so in New York State, where it had been known for 23 years, it ripened too late and never became popular. In 1897 Carman was added to the catalogue of the American Pomological Society. Samples are kept in 4 collections.

Why it matters to you. Carman shows that an identical name can confuse a pedigree even in a large catalogue: before trusting a parent label, check which variety it actually points to. And for lovers of long-keeping table grapes it is an example of a spicy Texas hybrid that stores well.