Our landlord has an affinity for unusual fruit, and he's planted lots of it over the years. Unfortunately, he's the only one who knows where half of it is. Recently we came across some gooseberry bushes that we hadn't been aware of—we've found four, though Christopher has mentioned a few more that have so far eluded us.
Either way, the bushes we know of are loaded with nice, fat gooseberries and the internets tell me that they should be ripe relatively soon. We're keeping an eye on them and we may make jam with them once they're ripe, since they have a lot of natural pectin. Other than that, we don't really know what to do with them.
Are any of you guys familiar with gooseberries? Got any good recipes to share?
03 June 2008
Gooseberries, anyone?
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7 comments:
Gooseberries are also nice just eaten as they are or in fruit salad. I don't know that I've ever had gooseberry jam before.
I just planted a couple of gooseberries, but they won't bear fruit for a year or two.
Gooseberry pie has to be one of my all time favorites! I've only used canned ones, though. We can't grow them this far south. They are wonderfully sour, like rhubarb.
Some are sweeter, others are more sour. Here's a link:
http://www.eattheseasons.co.uk/Archive/gooseberries.htm
If the plants are stressed or not well taken care of they can get a lot more sour. The plants need to be pruned in the fall, and the best berries grow on 2 or 3 year old wood. When you prune it the best thing to do is cut away the oldest 1/3 of the plant down to ground level.
I think the reason you don't see them in supermarkets is they don't keep very long after being picked.
I think it's really an undervalued fruit, but at the same time keep those expectations a little tempered!
Hi Meg
I don't have gooseberries like you, I do have cape gooseberries though, they grow in a bush type plant, an amazing food for high vitamin C and when picked ripe they are just delicious!
Blessings:)
Gooseberry fool is delicious. Or at least, it was when my geography prof. used to make it for us.
Check out the internet for recipes.
My parents, real old timers (75), rave about goosebeery pies. i have not tried it though.
nathan
In my family if someone is playing the martyr they say, "I'll eat the gooseberries" in a mournful tone.
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