The Good Life - Gooseberries

Green gooseberries in May

In recent years gooseberries have disappeared from shops and vegetable counters. Is it the case they are not made available for sale due to a lack of or waning popularity? Does a box of gooseberries get in the way of the old staple fruit such as apples and oranges? Or are people more interested in buying dragon fruit, sharon fruit, passion fruit, mangoes and other exotic tropical fruits flown or shipped in from all over the world? As a result are there any growers left?

There is something that draws me to the humble gooseberry. When I was quite young I discovered the the bushes needed to be handled with care because they are very thorny and one needs a certain amount of patience when dealing with them. As a child I am sure I was neither careful nor patient. The berries grow in a variety of colours, yellow, green, red and apparently a white berry exists. They vary in their sweetness but beneath the odd hairy, durable and veined skin is a flesh full of flavour with a refreshing and almost exciting bittersweet combination. While the red varieties are relatively sweet the green gooseberry can be quite bitter and best eaten one at a time.

There are many of varieties of the basic gooseberry or ribes uva crispa, including, to name but a few, Invicta, Greenfinch, Whinham’s industry, Jewetta, Careless, Woodpecker, Just Betty, Montrose, Surprise and Admiral Beattie. Across the north of England during the 18th and 19th Centuries there were many agricultural shows where fanatical growers would cultivate and experiment generating new varieties to compete and show their gooseberries.

Throughout his researches during the middle of the 19th Century, Charles Darwin posed to himself, and indeed many others, countless questions on the variation of species of animals and plants, exploring his theories of transmutation and natural selection. In particular, he continually targeted variation through domestication and cultivation based upon the reported experiences of pigeon fanciers and cottage gardeners to name but a few. Darwin himself famously had 54 different varieties of gooseberry bush in his garden at Down in Kent. He often advertised and encouraged correspondence on specific subjects that captured his attention from time to time and one such request appeared on the topic of gooseberries in the Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener on the 2 December 1862 almost three years after publishing “On the Origin of Species”.

He published the following in a notice:

“The fruit of the wild gooseberry is said to weigh 5 dwts. (I am surprised it is so heavy), and from various records I find that towards the close of the last century the fruit had doubled in weight; in 1817, a weight of 26 dwts. 17 grs. was obtained; in 1825, 31 dwts. 13 grs.; in 1841 “Wonderful” weighed 32 dwts. 16 grs.; in 1845, “London” reached the astonishing weight of 36 dwts. 16 grs., or 880 grains. I find in the “Gooseberry Register” for 1862, that this famous kind attained only the weight of 29 dwts. 8 grs.; and was beaten by “Antagonist.” Will anyone have the kindness to inform me whether it is authentically known that the weight of 36 dwts. 16 grs., has since the year 1845, ever been excelled?”

The seriousness of these competitions he referred to cannot be underestimated. They might have been conducted with the outward appearance of a friendly and community spirit between growers that could have competing against each other for decades, however the weight measurements are to this day recorded in drams, grains and pennyweights troy, a unit of measurement more commonly associated with a measurement of weight for precious metals than fruit. The oldest show still running today is held by the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society on the first Tuesday in August. In 2009 the Whitby Gazette announced the new world record weight of a gooseberry which had been entered into this prestigious show by champion grower Bryan Nellist. The “Woodpecker” which won the Harland Challenge Cup weighed 35 drams; 39.867 pennyweights troy.

At this time of year, those lucky enough to have a good crop of gooseberries should begin thinning them, removing about half of the crop to allow the remaining gooseberries room to grow. I am this lucky and will commence a bit of thinning at the end of May once they have had a chance to plump up just a little more. These “green” gooseberries are not thrown away or to be wasted. They are edible and can be introduced into tarts, preserves and jams. One interesting recipe which twins these young berries with another seasonal companion appears in an excellent book entitled “Forgotten Skills of Cooking”, page 444 to 445, by Darina Allen.

For Gooseberry and Elderflower Jam you shall require the following: 1.6 kgs. of green gooseberries, 5 or more elderflower heads tied in a muslin bag, and 1.6 kgs. of warmed sugar. You might wish to consider picking your elderflowers on a bright sunny day. To make the jam, place the gooseberries and the muslin bag of elderflowers into a preserving pan with 600mls of water after washing, topping, and tailing the berries. Simmer the fruit until it has softened and the contents of the pan have reduced by a third. Remove the muslin bag and add the sugar. The jam should be boiled rapidly until setting point is reached and thereafter placed into sterile warm jam jars, and sealed. Some people calculate setting point by the clock, others by temperature, however the time honoured way is to draw your finger across the back of the wooden spoon you have used to stir the jam. If the jam does not flow back into the area you have drawn your now blistered and burnt finger, the setting point will have been reached. This recipe should yield 6 x 450 gram pots of jam.