Our gooseberries are not quite ripe but they are as big as they will get, and they have to be picked before the raccoons find them sweet enough. Besides, if you use them to make jam as I do, you get a tastier jam when the berries are rather tart.
I grow 2 varieties, one of them (unidentified) produces small fruit (pictured above). These turn red if you let them ripen and are quite tasty fresh (if you beat the raccoons to them). The other variety, "Invicta", produces much larger fruit. It is a cooking gooseberry that remains rather green even when ripe. Gooseberry is a cool climate plant, so it grows very well for us in Canada.
This is a berry that is easily and quickly picked. It is not the picking that is time consuming, but the top and tail removal. Each berry has a stem end and a flower end that ideally should be removed, a job best done with a pair of scissors. You can leave tops and tails on, but the jam will look better without them.
As I said, using green berries does produce a jam with more character. You would think that the jam would end up being green, but, in fact, it turns a rich rosy/brown hue.
Some recipes have you use pectin, but you do not have to because contrarily to strawberries, gooseberries naturally have a lot of pectin. I made two batches this year, and for one of them, I used a recipe that called for extra pectin. The jam tastes good but is very rubbery. The one I made without adding pectin has a much nicer texture.
.JPG "Gooseberry Jam")
Making gooseberry jam is time consuming but it produces a tastier jam than you can buy, and, of course, you know what went into it. I like making it, first, because I like the taste but also because in a way it connects us to our ancestors. All these previous generations of people living in northern climates only ate fruits and berries they could grow. Gooseberry, which nowadays is hardly known, was an important fruit for them. While you top and tail your berries, you are repeating gestures of countless generations that preceded you. When you eat your gooseberry jam, you eat what your ancestors ate.
I grow 2 varieties, one of them (unidentified) produces small fruit (pictured above). These turn red if you let them ripen and are quite tasty fresh (if you beat the raccoons to them). The other variety, "Invicta", produces much larger fruit. It is a cooking gooseberry that remains rather green even when ripe. Gooseberry is a cool climate plant, so it grows very well for us in Canada.
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| Gooseberry with "top and tail" |
This is a berry that is easily and quickly picked. It is not the picking that is time consuming, but the top and tail removal. Each berry has a stem end and a flower end that ideally should be removed, a job best done with a pair of scissors. You can leave tops and tails on, but the jam will look better without them.
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| "Invicta" gooseberry |
As I said, using green berries does produce a jam with more character. You would think that the jam would end up being green, but, in fact, it turns a rich rosy/brown hue.
Making gooseberry jam is time consuming but it produces a tastier jam than you can buy, and, of course, you know what went into it. I like making it, first, because I like the taste but also because in a way it connects us to our ancestors. All these previous generations of people living in northern climates only ate fruits and berries they could grow. Gooseberry, which nowadays is hardly known, was an important fruit for them. While you top and tail your berries, you are repeating gestures of countless generations that preceded you. When you eat your gooseberry jam, you eat what your ancestors ate.
I just love gooseberries... I need to get a few for planting here. I read a gardening blog for a lady in England and she posted her gooseberry pics yesterday it's fair to say they look succulent!
ReplyDeleteIf you know someone who has them you can ask for a few cuttings, they root very easily. Just stick the cuttings in a pot and if you water them they will root.
DeleteI like to leave my gooseberries till they are plump and juicy and can be eaten like plums but as I have so many this year I may make a few jars of jam.
ReplyDeleteI also have a bumper crop this year (and it will be the same with currants). I should build some kind of cage to grow them in to be able to have some ripe, plump and juicy like you. As it is, if I leave them the raccoons get them.
DeleteI'm very pleased to read your post Alain as we love gooseberries and agree that they are often over looked. They take me right back to my Grandfather when I was a small boy as he had some mature bushes in his garden and I can still recall picking them with him.
ReplyDeleteWe've planted two in our garden here this year and while we'll only get a handful this year, I have high hopes for future harvests!
Good luck with yours. They are a very worthwhile plant as they are so undemanding and usually produce a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think gooseberries are beautiful; I love their dapper stripes. Most berries are time consuming to process, but worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother had a gooseberry bush, and I used to love eating the berries, which were large and pink.
ReplyDeleteAcross the road and over the drumlin, there was an abandoned farm house with a "magical" old-style garden. In addition to tough old-fashioned flowers and fruit trees, there were red currants, white currants, black currants, and gooseberries.
I, too, love gooseberries. I have a huge crop this year on my single bush brought with me when I moved five years ago.I make a gooseberry marmalade, and gooseberry chutney as well as using them in pies and fools. My favourite use is as "stewed". I make that in my microwave. Simply add a tblsp. of water to about 2 cups of fruit. Microwave on high for about 3 minutes. While still hot stir in tablsp. of honey and add sugar to taste.Delicious.
ReplyDeleteI love them ripe but cannot beat the chipmunks to them here.
This gives me all sorts of ideas for the rest of the crop. I have made all the jam I am going to make, have given berries to two people and there are quite a few left. I will try stewing them and I like the idea of a chutney. A tart chutney would be nice.
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ReplyDeleteHas anybody ever made jam without "topping and tailing"? It's so tedious and I'm thinking that once they're cooked, you'd probably not even notice them. I'm hoping that it's like a lot of things – we do it a certain way just because it's always been done that way! (I'm freezing mine for now while I'm still picking more and I'll make jam and maybe chutney next week.)
ReplyDeleteI don't think it makes much difference. I will be able to tell you before long as I still have so many berries that I am about to make an other small batch of jam and will not bother with the topping and tailing. The rest we plan to eat fresh as Helen suggests above.
DeleteI did make chutney last week and with lemon juice it turned out nice and tart.
Yummy! We don't have gooseberries but I picked two quarts of wild black raspberries this year and made some wonderful freezer jam.
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