One of the mountain roads included in the public works project.
The “Connecting Querétaro” highway project has upgraded 226 kilometers of road for an investment of 1 billion pesos (about US $50 million), improving transportation among 300 communities in the sierra, the state government reported on Sunday.
Before the project, roads were in poor condition, some only providing one lane and others being unusable in heavy rain.
The hydraulic concrete highways have transformed residents’ lives by connecting communities, providing access to hospitals and schools, improving public transport, and enabling products to be transported and emergency services to reach people in need, the government said in a prepared statement.
The project provided social benefit too: local labor was sought which helped boost the local economy, and female workers were encouraged to join the workforce in a new precedent for public works in the state.
In one case, 40% of the workers employed in the modernization of roads in the Landa de Matamoros municipality were female.
Querétaro officials say other states have looked to follow suit and replicate the model of female participation. They have signed an agreement to produce a public works manual from a gender perspective, which seeks to ensure that contractors employ women.
Querétaro is one of the country’s safest and most affluent states. From January through May, Querétaro only recorded 92 homicides, compared to neighboring Guanajuato, the country’s most violent, which registered 1,545.
Querétaro’s namesake capital city placed fifth in the Financial Times’ Latin American Cities of the Future 2021/22. The only city in the country that ranked higher was Mexico City, which came first.
A fence is erected around Puebla's famous hole in the ground.
The first study into the origins of the huge sinkhole in the state of Puebla discounted overexploitation of groundwater sources. Now a second study has turned that theory on its head, only for its author to muddy the waters further by denying its own participation.
Water exploitation, soil erosion and recent intense rain caused the ground to part in Santa María Zacatepec and leave a massive sinkhole, said Beatriz Manrique Guevara, head of the state Environment Ministry.
She was quoting from a study that analyzed 25 hectares around the sinkhole, finding a number of illegal wells among 47 others that were registered for water extraction. Three years of drought followed by intense rain this year were also named as factors.
The study was credited to the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). However, in an unusual turn of events, the IPN looked to distance itself from the study and denied having “any official connection” to it on Friday, raising questions over its findings.
Guevara assured that there is an agreement between the government and the IPN, but that the organization had failed to process documentation to make the relationship official. It is not immediately clear why the IPN looked to distance itself further on Friday.
The giant chasm measures 126 meters across, having first emerged as a 10-meter hole on May 29 in Zacatepec, 20 kilometers northwest of Puebla city.
Guevara highlighted the findings of the latest study: the use of illicit wells amounted to a “massive exploitation of water” and in the last eight years the water level in the area had dropped by eight meters, due in part to the intensification of exploitation.
“[Overexploitation] has dragged away silt or clay, which is the element that binds the earth,” she said.
It revealed that 80% of wells in the area were used for agriculture, 15% for domestic use and 5% for industrial purposes.
The turbulent climate has also played a role: a lack of rain in the region had caused water levels to drop 35% below the average. In contrast, this year intense rainfall left the area with levels 85% above average.
The study pointed to the combination of factors. “The natural erosion of the soil through human activities and natural erosion, and the natural phenomenon of intense rain has caused the collapse of the soil, which has no resistance,” it read.
Authorities began Monday to extend the perimeter line around the sinkhole and erect a fence to prevent people from accessing the site, given the discovery of unregistered wells and the conclusion that the ground is unstable. An area of 25 hectares is being cordoned off, a move that comes just days after two men entered the secured area and walked to the edge of the hole where one of the two urinated in it, an event they captured on video.
Meanwhile, Puebla Governor Miguel Barbosa was keen to point out that the investigations not final, and that opinions from other scientific institutions remain welcome. He added that determining the precise cause could take all the rest of the 21st century: it could be “79 or 78 years from now,” he said.
Ebrard speaks at one of the president's morning press conferences.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard confirmed Tuesday that he intends to seek the candidacy of the ruling Morena party to contest the 2024 presidential election.
His announcement follows the publication of media reports stating that he made his plans known at a lunch with colleagues and close associates on Saturday.
It also comes a week after President López Obrador named six possible successors to his position: Ebrard, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbuam, Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier, Energy Minister Rocío Nahle, ambassador to the United States Esteban Moctezuma and Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Mexico’s permanent representative to the United Nations.
Speaking at López Obrador’s regular news conference on Tuesday, Ebrard thanked the president for considering him as a possible successor and confirmed that he will participate in the Morena party selection process to find a candidate to contest the 2024 election.
That process is still 2 1/2 years away, the foreign minister said, adding that he will continue to focus on his current role in the meantime. He encouraged other possible successors to do the same.
“… Let’s not lose our concentration on what we are doing. Let’s be consistent, perseverant and loyal. And of course when [the selection process] arrives we’ll be ready to participate,” Ebrard said.
At a lunch at a private residence in Toluca, México state, on Saturday that was attended by more than 100 guests including Foreign Ministry officials, federal lawmakers, Morena party insiders and some of Ebrard’s longterm political collaborators, the foreign minister emphatically declared his presidential ambitions, according to people present who subsequently spoke with reporters.
“We’re going to take the president at his word, … yes, we are going to compete [in the candidate selection process],” Ebrard declared to rapturous applause during a 20-minute speech.
According to some attendees who spoke with Reforma, the foreign minister railed against a group of people within Morena’s ranks that he claimed has launched a campaign to kill off his future political prospects by using the May 3 Mexico City Metro disaster against him.
Ebrard was mayor of the capital when Line 12 of the Metro system – part of which collapsed and caused an accident that claimed the lives of 26 people – was built and there have been reports that the project was rushed to ensure it was finished while he was in office in order to boost his chances during a possible tilt at the presidency in 2012. (He didn’t end up running.)
But Ebrard evidently believes he is still alive in a political sense and a good chance of not only securing the Morena party candidacy but also subsequently succeeding López Obrador, as he did in Mexico City after winning the 2006 mayoral election. (AMLO, as the president is commonly known, was Mexico City mayor from 2000 to 2005.)
“… They think that I’m dead but they’ve killed me politically many times,” Ebrard told guests as they ate carne asada (grilled meat) washed down with red wine and beer, according to Reforma.
“… They took me for dead but here we are. We’re going to participate [in the candidate selection process] respecting the rules of the game.”
About a dozen of Ebrard’s colleagues and close associates also delivered speeches at the lunch, reported Reforma, and one of them declared that the foreign minister is the sole person who can offer “proven continuity” of Obradorismo – the López Obrador political doctrine.
Several of the attendees subsequently took to social media to offer their support to Ebrard and post selfies they took with the would-be candidate, even though mobile telephones were ostensibly banned at the event.
“I had the pleasure to speak with Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard. I believe he would be an excellent president of the republic. There is no doubt that he will … provide continuity to the project of the fourth transformation,” wrote Morena party Baja California delegate Ismael Burgueño.
Another strong contender is Mayor Sheinbaum, who was greeted by cheering supporters as “Presidenta” — or Madam President — during Sunday’s inauguration of Mexico City’s new cable car system.
Two days after Ebrard’s lunch, the president broadened his list of possible successors, asserting that there are “many” men and women who could replace him.
“Everyone in [the federal] cabinet, [Morena party] governors, parliamentary leaders, all of them have the possibility [of becoming the candidate for president],” López Obrador told reporters at his regular news conference, held Monday at a military base in Villahermosa, Tabasco.
The Morena candidate will be the person who receives the most support from “the people” in a democratic selection process, he added.
“… That’s the rule, the people will decide … in a free and democratic way who should represent us – … the progressive, liberal movement with a social dimension,” López Obrador said.
The next presidential election will be held on June 2, 2024, four months before AMLO is scheduled to leave office.
The main opposition parties – the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the Democratic Revolution Party – appear likely to field a joint candidate as they did in many of the recent gubernatorial elections.
A poll earlier this year found that Ricardo Anaya, the PAN candidate in the 2018 presidential election and a former lawmaker and PAN national president, was the most popular choice to run against Morena in 2024.
Four other choices were offered to those polled: Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro; Senator Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, a longtime politician and interior minister in the 2012-2018 federal government; Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral; and businessman and prominent government critic Claudio X. González.
Another possible contender is Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila, who PAN national president Marko Cortés praised last week, saying he didn’t have “the slightest doubt” he would be a good choice to contest the race for the opposition.
“… Mauricio Vila has been a good governor, he’s achieved good results, he’s very well evaluated and part of the strength of the National Action Party is that we will have … good options on the path to 2024,” he said.
Protesters outside the sewer and water utility Monday in Acapulco.
Polluted water can be seen spilling onto a beach in Acapulco, Guerrero, in a video taken by a tourist just before the summer vacation season goes into full swing.
The video uploaded to social media shows the sand at Icacos Beach darkening as it becomes increasingly contaminated due to a leaking drain pipe in the Plaza Canada business precinct.
The tourist used the video to alert state and federal environmental authorities and the navy of the damage, complaining that it wasn’t the first time, and wrote of the health dangers to tourists bathing in filthy water as well as the risks to marine life.
The dumping of sewage on the city’s beaches has been a recurrent problem, despite fines handed out to local businesses, hotels and condos, according to the news portal La Silla Rota.
Last April, sewage leaked onto Papagayo Beach, which the city’s water treatment authority (Capama) blamed on the failure of the drainage system a few blocks away due to heavy rain.
Contaminated water captured in a video taken in Acapulco.
Angered by the inaction of authorities, around 300 tourist service providers protested outside Capama’s office Monday, forcing it to close before making the organization’s head, Roberto Villalobos, walk along Manzanillo Beach to see the extent of the problem.
The protesters shouted “Clean beaches! Clean beaches!” and demanded that authorities stop the flow of sewage into the bay, and put 17 treatment plants into operation.
Villalobos agreed to put together a working group.
One of the protesters said the contamination would dissuade tourists. “They don’t resolve anything, we want a solution. Capama needs to do its job … People won’t put up with this scourge any longer; tourists are eating and there is excrement by their side,” he said.
The head of a water sports cooperative, Arturo Pantoja Guatemala, put the blame squarely on the city government. “We are prepared for the summer season. The truth is that we need it, after very difficult days in the pandemic. But now what worries us is the bad image that we have due to the nauseating smells that we have on all the beaches of Acapulco; it is a situation that has gotten out of hand with the municipal council,” he said.
He called on the council to fulfill its public duties by collecting waste, fixing public lighting and attending to the sewage leaks.
Meanwhile, in more bad news for the tourism industry, Acapulco could soon return from green to yellow on the coronavirus stoplight map due to a surge in Covid-19 infections, according to the news site Infobae.
New ballast on the Mexico City Metro appears to have worn down the support structure.
The elevated section of Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro, part of which collapsed on May 3, was overburdened by as much as 7,000 tonnes due to the replacement of ballast in 2015, according to a report by the newspaper Milenio.
New ballast was placed on tracks between Culhuacán and Tláhuac after structural repairs were carried out on the elevated section in 2014 and 2015. The quality of the ballast previously used was deemed inadequate and substandard by a company contracted by the Mexico City government. The firm, Systra, recommended its replacement.
But the new ballast was heavier than that previously used and overloaded the elevated section by up to 7,000 tonnes, said Milenio, which accessed information from the Mexico City Ministry of Public Works.
The additional weight wore down the structure supporting the elevated section of the line including its concrete columns, the newspaper said.
Former Public Works Minister Alfredo Hernández and ex-Metro director Joel Ortega took the decision to replace the old ballast and selected the new ballast, which was purchased in Acolman, a México state municipality just north of the capital.
Milenio reported last month that replacement rails, sleepers and fasteners installed in 2014 and 2015 added 2,367 tonnes of weight. The new ballast alone weighs almost triple that amount.
“Experts consulted by Milenio commented that this excess load took the structure to its elastic limits, creating cracks, fragmentation and deformation [that] damaged [metal and concrete] sheets, beams and columns,” the newspaper said, referring to the weight added by the rails, sleepers, fasteners and ballast. The situation worsened as a result of two powerful earthquakes in 2017, Milenio added.
DNV’s report noted deformations, fractures and displacement of beams that form part of the structure that supports the elevated section. The excess weight placed on the structure during a period of several years may have contributed to the collapse, the Milenio reports suggest.
DNV will release a final report detailing the results of its investigation into the cause of the tragedy later this year.
Supporting baseball – President López Obrador’s favorite sport – is more than twice as important as supporting women’s rights, federal government spending plans suggest.
In contrast, the annual budget of the National Women’s Institute – which manages a range of programs for women in addition to overseeing the implementation of federal policies aimed at achieving gender equality and eliminating discrimination against women – is just 830 million pesos (US $41.8 million).
The “baseball budget” is also much higher than the annual funding of many other government departments, including the federal government’s Executive Commission for Attention to Victims and the National Commission for the Continued Betterment of Education, which receive 843 million pesos and 577 million pesos, respectively.
It amounts to almost two-thirds of the 2021 budget of the National Sports Commission, whose resources are under intense pressure this year due to Mexican athletes’ upcoming participation in the Tokyo Olympics.
López Obrador, who occasionally seeks to relieve the pressure of managing the nation’s affairs by retreating to a ballpark for some batting practice, has previously defended the government’s spending on his favorite pastime.
Nobody doubts the president’s passion for baseball but his interest in improving the lives of women in Mexico – where approximately 10 women are murdered every day – has been extensively questioned.
A statement published late last year that was endorsed by more than 650 academics, journalists, poets, scientists, artists, writers, filmmakers and other intellectuals even charged that López Obrador has shown contempt for women’s protests and the pain that victims of gender-based violence endure.
Ángel Luis Pereda ran for mayor of a municipality in Puebla June 6.
A former mayoral candidate in San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, was arrested Friday in New York for peddling fake modern art, U.S. federal prosecutors said.
Ángel Luis Pereda Eguiluz, 49, is accused of wire fraud in an attempt to earn millions of dollars by pretending works were by modern art icons Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Prosecutors said the Citizens’ Movement candidate in the June 6 elections had “conned art buyers” who he hoped wouldn’t notice the art was forged.
FBI agent Christopher McKeogh, who is investigating the case, said Pereda had tried to sell multiple fake artworks to various auction houses, including a vase and a painting by Haring, a collaborative painting by Basquiat and Haring and a copy of Basquiat’s “Glory Boys Kingdom.”
According to the newspaper Milenio Paredes had lined up a buyer for a supposed Basquiat piece for US $6 million.
The FBI has also tracked transfers of thousands of dollars to Pereda’s Mexican bank accounts, which it alleged are linked to other sales of fake art.
Late last year, at least two auction houses in New York City discovered fake pieces being sold to them. In one case a Haring piece was said to have been owned by the “Pareda Family, Mexico.”
The politician appears to have fallen victim to a sting operation. A person “acting at the direction of the FBI” told Pereda on June 23 that a Basquiat piece was fake but that it would be sold to a potential buyer for US $6 million if Pereda could come up with fake documents showing its provenance, which he did, according to the criminal complaint. “Pereda expected to receive a portion of the revenue of the sale of this fraudulent painting,” read the court filing.
Works by Basquiat and Haring have brought big numbers at auction. In 2017 a Basquiat painting was sold for $110.5 million, a U.S. record at the time.
Members of the philharmonic band are short 10 wind instruments.
Members of a youth philharmonic band in Oaxaca were deprived of 10 wind instruments when thieves ransacked a community center on June 29.
One clarinet, two saxophones, four trumpets and three trombones were stolen from the band in Santa Ana-Ne’äm, Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, 117 kilometers east of Oaxaca City in the Sierra Mixe, home to the indigenous Mixe people.
The case came to light when the band made a public denouncement, and simultaneously put out a plea for help. “We are kindly calling for the support of the whole population of Tlahuitoltepec … for assistance to recover the instruments of the young musicians,” it read.
The Culture Ministry condemned the theft and said the act could inhibit the children’s education. “We stand in solidarity with the girls, boys and young musicians … Acts like these threaten the comprehensive development of children and youth in Mexico,” it said in a statement.
This isn’t the first time a philharmonic in Oaxaca has been left without its instruments. In December 2019, the Philharmonic Band of San Pedro and San Pablo de Ayutla was robbed of 26 instruments. On that occasion, the instruments were replaced by donations organized on social media.
The Mixe people live in the eastern highlands of Oaxaca. They are considered to be culturally conservative, which has helped them preserve their language whose speakers number an estimated 90,000. The group call themselves ayuujkjä’äy meaning “people who speak the mountain language” rather than Mixe, which is probably derived from the Náhuatl word for cloud: mīxtli.
Scene of the ambush in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in which a Sinaloa Cartel plaza chief was killed.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is making its presence felt in Chiapas, a state coveted by drug, arms and human traffickers due to its long border with Guatemala, but one that has largely avoided the kind of cartel violence for which some other states are notorious.
Presumed CJNG gunmen killed five suspected members of the Sinaloa Cartel in the state capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez last Wednesday.
The Jalisco sicarios ambushed the Sinaloa operatives in La Gloria, an affluent neighborhood of Tuxtla, a city of approximately 600,000 people where gun violence is rare.
One of the five slain men was Ramón Rivera, a Sinaloa Cartel plaza chief in Chiapas and son of Gilberto Rivera, a trafficker known as “the lord of the southern border” who was arrested in Guatemala in 2016 and extradited to the United States a year later.
Carmen Villa, head of the Citizens Security Observatory in Chiapas, said the armed attack was an abnormal event for Tuxtla and the entire state.
A victim of the violence last week in the Chiapas highlands.
She acknowledged there have been armed confrontations in Chiapas but asserted that disputes in the state are generally not between drug cartels. The cartel violence that plagues many parts of Mexico is a “very distant reality” for Chiapas residents, Villa said.
“… My reaction [to last Wednesday’s attack] and perhaps that of bystanders was very naive; many were filming the shootout, many people didn’t believe what was happening. … I don’t know what is worse – not having the preparation to react or to get used to [cartel violence] and know what it’s about. … It was definitely something extraordinary and sadly I believe it won’t be a one-off experience,” she said.
Meanwhile, a criminal group allegedly affiliated with the CJNG seized control of a town in the Alto de Chiapas (highlands) region last Wednesday and subsequently clashed with police and military personnel.
Los Ciriles took control of Pantelhó and it wasn’t until Thursday that state and federal security forces arrived in the town, located 120 kilometers northeast of Tuxtla. They were ambushed on arrival, the newspaper Reforma reported, and nine police and soldiers were wounded.
Los Ciriles are also believed to be responsible for the murder last Monday of Simón Pedro Pérez López, a human rights activist who was gunned down in front of his son.
Pedro Faro, director of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, claimed that Los Ciriles also have links to the Democratic Revolution Party, which is in office in Pantelhó.
He told Reforma that the criminal group has instilled fear in residents for years and committed 13 murders since March last year.
“… It has threatened, harassed and murdered people in … [their] homes. They’ve gone looking for them because they haven’t wanted to collaborate with the criminal group,” Faro said. At least 65 people have fled Pantelhó out of fear, he added.
According to federal authorities, the CJNG, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel are the three main cartels operating in Chiapas, which has a border of more than 650 kilometers with Guatemala. The Sinaloa Cartel has long controlled much of the border area and is the dominant criminal organization but the CJNG appears intent on muscling in on its territory to expand its influence, as it has already done in some other states such as Guanajuato and Michoacán.
The tussle between cartels has the potential to significantly increase homicide numbers, as armed confrontations such as that seen in Tuxtla last week typically result in multiple deaths. Villa, the citizens observatory chief, noted that homicides in Chiapas increased 30% in May compared to the same month last year and femicides, home burglaries and drug trafficking offenses increased by significantly higher percentages.
“The conversation between those of us who analyze security, which is a small circle because Chiapas has other more ‘urgent’ problems’ is that this [new criminal] reality has already reached us,” she said.
Homicides in Mexico reached a record high of more than 34,000 in 2019 – President López Obrador’s first full year in office – before falling just 0.4% last year. Murders did, however, decline 2.9% in the first five months of 2021 compared to the same period last year, an achievement that has been repeatedly highlighted by federal officials.
There were 14,243 homicides between January and May, of which only some 200 occurred in Chiapas. The southern state is far from the most violent in Mexico but recent events indicate that the security situation could be about to worsen.
Combining sweet grapes and savory sausage will change up your standard oatmeal breakfast in the best of ways.
This week in the mercado I came upon a vendor with a small crate of tiny, beautiful red grapes. They were shiny and fresh, in big clusters, with some of the curling vines still attached.
Here in Mazatlán, it’s not common to find produce that has any semblance of “naturalness” — the majority is commercially grown on giant farms and devoid of any trace of actually being grown. I was, to put it mildly, quite thrilled, and actually went back to buy more after I’d tasted how delicious they were.
Perfect! I thought — this week’s column. I had an idea of the kind of recipes I would find but was surprised at how much I didn’t know about grapes as an ingredient — especially about how they transform when cooked or broiled.
I’d had grapes in salads, yes, especially with chicken. In fruit salads and smoothies, duh. But how about in omelets — as a sweet zing in the classic spinach-and-cheese? (Remember to cut them in half so they don’t roll out.) Or as part of crostini, to add a bite of sweetness to an otherwise savory crudité?
Turns out baking or broiling grapes (really, any variety, although seedless is always recommended) turns the already sweet little globes into rich caramelized bursts of flavor, which can then be used in oh-so-many ways. Grapes can also be added to salsa or kabobs and pair well with chicken and beef.
Spread feta or requesón cheese over the bread on these crostini and you’ll have a truly decadent appetizer that few can resist.
Another aha! moment: DIY raisins or, in more formal terms, oven-dried grapes. Since moving to Mexico, this has been one of my pet peeves: the only raisins I can find are small, tough and basically flavorless.
Whenever I go to the States, I bring several bags back in my luggage: sweet, pretty golden seedless ones; big juicy Thompsons; mixed varieties. While I haven’t yet made my own, I read review after review from folks saying they’d done it. I’m excited to try.
When my kids were little, we used to freeze grapes for an easy iced snack; I’d forgotten about that. Be sure to use seedless grapes!
Pull them off the stems, then rinse, disinfect and pat dry. Spread on a cookie sheet and freeze for a couple of hours. Store in a zip-top bag or container.
Many varieties of grapes are grown throughout Mexico; they’ll appear in different areas at different times of the year. (They’re also imported from the United States, Chile and other parts of South America.)
Locally grown grapes will be the sweetest and freshest. Just keep an eye out, ask where they’re grown and be ready to have some fun in the kitchen!
Roasted Grape Crostini
3 cups seedless red or green grapes, halved lengthwise
2 Tbsp. sherry or rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. olive oil
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1 tsp. grated orange zest
24 slices baguette (cut diagonally ½-inch thick)
½ cup shaved Manchego or Romano cheese
Thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Preheat oven to 400 F. Gently mix first five ingredients; spread on a baking sheet. Roast until grapes are lightly browned and softened, 30–35 minutes. Remove from oven, stir in orange zest. Cool. Arrange bread slices on ungreased baking sheet. In broiler or toaster oven, lightly toast both sides. Top with warm grape mixture; sprinkle with cheese and basil.
Optional: Spread toasted bread slices with feta or requesón cheese before adding other toppings.
Grape Slushie Freeze
Using banana makes it creamier.
Handful frozen seedless grapes, any kind
1½ cups pineapple juice
Optional: ½ banana
Ice
Blend everything at high speed.
Roasted Grapes
Eat on their own, or serve in a salad as a dinner side dish or on toast with cheese.
Seedless grapes, any kind
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Toss grapes with just enough oil to coat, salt and pepper; spread on cookie sheet. Bake at 425 F for 30 minutes.
Using a cast-iron skillet works even better to sear in the flavors in this roasted chicken with grapes, rosemary and kalamata olives.
Oven-Dried Grapes (aka raisins)
A dehydrator makes fast work of the process, but this method yields plumper, more flavorful raisins. Be patient!
3 large bunches seedless grapes, stemmed
Vegetable or canola oil
Preheat oven to 225 F. Very lightly grease two rimmed baking sheets with oil (use parchment or a silpat if you have one); scatter grapes all over. (Juice will escape from grapes and may cause them to stick to the pan.)
Bake, checking periodically for doneness, until grapes are nicely shriveled and semi-dried but still slightly plump, 3–5 hours. (Exact time depends on the grapes, your oven and preferred degree of dryness.) Let cool.
Use a thin metal spatula on any grapes that are stuck. Store, refrigerated, in sealed container for up to 3 weeks.
Grape Compote
Serve on top of pancakes, oatmeal, vanilla ice cream and more
3 cups seedless black grapes
⅓ cup sugar
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Pinch salt
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Optional: 2 pods of star anise
Bring grapes, sugar, lemon juice, salt and anise, if using, to a boil in a skillet, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat; simmer 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until grapes burst and mixture is syrupy.
Discard anise; whisk in butter. Serve warm or chilled.
Roast Chicken with Grapes and Kalamata Olives
3 lbs. chicken parts with skin and bone
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup seedless grapes
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives
2 small shallots, thinly sliced
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary
Preheat oven to 450 F. Wash and pat chicken dry, season with salt and pepper.
Heat oil in an ovenproof 12-inch heavy skillet (cast-iron if possible) over medium-high heat.
Working in 2 batches, brown chicken on both sides, skin side down first, about 5 minutes per batch. Return pieces to pan, skin side up; surround with grapes, olives and shallots. Roast about 20 minutes until just cooked through and juices run clear. Transfer to platter.
Add wine and chicken broth to pan juices in skillet. Boil for 2–3 minutes, scraping up any brown bits.
If desired, strain sauce, then pour over chicken. Garnish with rosemary.
Savory Oatmeal with Grapes and Sausage
1 cup oatmeal, instant or regular
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. butter
4 sweet Italian sausages
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup red grapes
½ cup fruity red wine
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
Cook oatmeal as directed. Stir in Parmesan and butter; cover and set aside.
Cook sausages in oil 6–8 minutes, turning occasionally, until browned all over and partially cooked but still pink in center. Add grapes to skillet and cook, tossing and crushing some with a wooden spoon, until they are browned and slightly saucy and the sausages are cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove sausages to a plate.
Add wine and vinegar to skillet, and cook until juices are thickened and syrupy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in thyme and butter; season with salt and pepper.
Divide oatmeal among bowls. Divide sausages, grapes and sauce over top.
