Overview
Raisins are dried grapes, thus their name, which derives from the Latin word racemes, meaning "a cluster of grapes or berries." Grape growing (virticulture) appears to have started around 600 BC in the Transcausia area (present day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) and, while it is reasonable to assume that dried grapes were consumed from early days, the Bible provides the first written mention of raisins around 1000 B.C. during the era of King David (Source: Sun-Maid). By the 9th century A.D., at least 78 varieties of grapes were being grown in the Near East (Source: Damania).
Spanish missionaries brought their grape-growing and wine-making knowledge to Mexico, New Mexico and California in the 18th century when establishing their missions that used sacramental wines. They also made raisins from Muscat grapes. Eventually, the San Joaquin Valley in California became a desirable location for raisin production because of the long, hot growing season and abundant water supplies in this southern portion of the Central Valley. By the late 1800s, Armenian raisin producers had settled in the area and used their expertise to make the industry thrive. Also in the late 1800s, a
Scottish immigrant, William Thompson, developed the Thompson seedless grape, which became the prevalent grape variety used in raisin production (Source: California Raisin Marketing Board). In addition to being an excellent grape for raisin production, the Thompson seedless grape is versatile because it can be marketed as a fresh commodity or used to make grape juice or wine.
Raisin production has been the most labor-intensive activity in North America (Source: Rural Migration News 2004). Although raisin production traditionally involves a lot of hand labor to cut bunches of green grapes and layer them to dry in the sun on paper trays between the rows of grapevines, the new dried-on-the-vine technology (DOV) allows for machine harvesting of the dry raisins and for less tillage. September 2006 . . . Raisins (pdf)