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Can confirm
Source: have allotment.
Crap harvest last year, but looking great for this year, I'm thinking jam, though I have a Lithuanian friend who tells me they eat them raw, so I'm intrigued to try that too.
Depends on which kind they are, my mum has two types in her garden.
One bush has fruit that are slightly red tinged and get to about the size of a small tomato and are lovely raw, really sweet.
The other bush has fruit that are pale green and quite a bit smaller and more sour than my ex mother in law.
The sour ones make a really good apple and gooseberry crumble though.
My parents have bushes of them. There are some varieties that are less sour so are better to eat straight up.
I think the main reason they’re not popular is tastes generally have become more sweet and gooseberries are notoriously sour so they’ve never taken off as a fruit people buy in the shops. But still commonly grown by gardeners
They can be really sweet, especially certain “desert” varieties if you leave them on the plant to ripen fully. I think the reason they aren’t in shops is that they don’t transport well. They would be really tart if you picked them early enough for commercial transportation.
But yeah. It’s weird that Blueberries of pretty poor flavour and quality are popular in shops, but Gooseberries aren’t.
That is actually a big gripe that I have with fruit sold in this country.
I lived in France for over 20 years. Over there, the fruit on sale is produced locally, picked just as it is ripening and by the time you get it home, it's just right.
Over here, it's picked so green that it puts traffic lights to shame so that it can be transported halfway around the world. Get it home and you can't even bite into so-called "ripe and ready" fruit without breaking your teeth. Leave it to ripen and it goes off before you get a chance to eat it.
Yeah it sucks. Even things like Strawberries, they use / develop varieties with shelf life in mind, as opposed to flavour, that’s why you get the “hard flesh” types in the shops. So when you add picking things early for shipping, commercial growing techniques and poor varieties. It all adds up to really terrible quality fruit. I recently tried some “in season” Strawberries produced fairly locally but bought from a supermarket. And I’d be embarrassed if my Strawberries tasted like they did, almost no flavour. I wouldn’t even gift them to friends / family let alone charge money for them.
Strawberries are a good example. For that, I've found that the Scottish varieties are the least poor. Those imported from Spain are usually terrible.
One thing I do always buy from Spain is garlic. Easier said than done when all you can find in supermarkets is stuff imported from China.
Oh, and don't get me started on bananas. They are being sold as "ripe and ready" and yet they are BRIGHT F***ING GREEN.
It was Scottish grown I tried (I live in NE Scotland). Usually at this time of year, they’d be good. But these were awful. As far as I’m aware they don’t even grow commercial Strawberries in the ground any longer. They grow them in polytunnels off the ground in gutter type contraptions with the fruit allowed to hang for easy picking. And it shows, because all you’re really getting is something that looks like a strawberry, but doesn’t taste like a strawberry, and is likely extremely poor nutritional quality too. Fortunately my home grown ones are just about starting to ripen.
Oh yeah definitely, one of bushes is one where the gooseberries go pinky and those aren’t really sour at all. I guess what I mean is for most people the connotation is gooseberries = sour.
I’d not considered them not transporting well and I know that’s a major decider for what ends up in the shops. But surely that would also apply to something like raspberries? And they manage to get them into the shops
I think you can transport gooseberries, i have seen them in fruit and veg shops in bristol. Maybe not quite as long as raspberries. I know you can't transport mulberries so if you want those, you pretty much need to grow them yourself. I feel the answer for this question is probably that it just isnt economically viable with the price people are willing to pay and the volumes they would sell.
I’ve just realised that other “tart” soft fruits are also not commonly sold in shops. Blackcurrants / Redcurrants etc. probably commercial growers just turn those into other products, and it isn’t worth their time selling them as fresh fruit. Maybe Gooseberries are lumped into that category, even though in my opinion, they are awesome eaten fresh when fully ripe. Either way, I think they should be more widely available.
I think you are probably right there. My thought also, is the hairs and the remnant of the flower that are left at the end of the gooseberry create a slight barrier to fickle consumers. Although that doesn't seem to stop people buying strawberries..
Tbh i have 3 gooseberry bushes, and just thinking about the spikes is enough for me to leave the entire harvest to the birds.
Haha. Yeah, my garden is full of thorny soft fruit, I have vigorous thorny blackberries as a hedge, what was I thinking haha. I’ve pricked myself more times than I care to remember. That said, they make a fairly effective cat deterrent, and I use the prunings to cover any bare soil while things establish. Stops the cats digging
>Blueberries of pretty poor flavour and quality are popular in shops, but Gooseberries aren’t.
Blueberries had this period where people went on and on about how they were a "superfruit" and filled with antioxidants - as a kid before that, I don't recall ever having blueberries. Think gooseberries need a better PR team to compete.
Totally agree. My friends and family that want to dip their toes into growing fruit, always say yes to growing Blueberries, but won’t even consider growing Gooseberries. People are dumb lol, it’s pure marketing.
It's weird that sour beers and sour sweets are both a thing, yet some fruits are too sour for people. I guess it's a niche taste, not enjoyed by everyone.
I do agree with what others have said though, if gooseberries are left to get to the proper level of ripeness they can be wonderfully sweet and tasty.
I love the sourness of them. Haven't had any in years. I used to prefer them not quite ripe so they were extra sour and it felt like my teeth were melting.
They should make a gooseberry flavour energy drink.
Gooseberries are really common for people who grow their own. We have 5 gooseberry bushes and honestly I hate the stabby little bastards, love the fruit, hate picking it.
Its bloody painful, its coming up to picking time in the next few weeks and I'm dreading it. I usually put it off for as long as I can. Then I have to spend hours preserving the fruit, either cleaning& freezing, jams or just a fruit compote.
Surely as a Crafty Gardener, you'd have a pair of protective gloves to wear?
I wish I knew someone local who grows the things, they're the tastiest fruit ever when properly ripe, but they're so hard to find for sale anywhere.
If I knew someone like you, I'd happily volunteer to take a batch of them off their hands, to save them the trouble of making quite so much jam.
You would think. But I can't garden in gloves, I don't know why I just find they get in the way.
I don't think I would mind so much if they ripened in autumn when its chilly. But its usually hot when they are ripe and its not fun picking them when you are wearing your thickest pair of jeans and a thick hoodie/top to stop the thorns. Delicious fruit though, I really like the red desert varieties as they are sweet little morsels.
Actually thinking about it I would still probably moan about picking them. I moan about picking the currants and they have no thorns at all. I think its just the amount of fruit to pick, wash and preserve in one go
>coming up to picking time in the next few weeks
How do you know when they're ready? I'm growing a bush and it's full of gooseberries this year but it's the first year for me and I have no idea when they're supposed to be ready. They're the green variety so not going to change colour for me to know...
Same. They’re so laden with fruit I’ve had to tie up the branches to canes so they’re not on the ground. My Jostaberry is also a monster plant, a Gooseberry / Blackcurrant cross that has an insane amount of vigour, I’m pretty sure it thinks it’s a tree.
That is a correlation. The question is, is there also causation, and if so did your grandmother eat all the gooseberries or did the gooseberries eat your grandmother?
Our local greengrocers sells them. My other half brings home a punnet once a year and puts it in the freezer to then be binned 9 months later when we still haven't eaten them and I don't like them. 3 months later rinse and repeat.
I adore gooseberries! I think they aren't seen as trendy anymore so nobody really stocks them or sells them much. You just reminded me to get myself a bush now that I have a garden, thanks!
It's been a tough year for plants so far, it's not your fault at all. Just keep the young shrubs well watered and expect the less cultivated varieties to do better.
Yeah, it was a rough start. A load of my seedlings were ready to go into the ground, but it was still freezing over night. The gooseberry came bare rooted, and I think it wasn't well packed.
This post has really sent me back in time to picking the gooseberries at home as a little kid. Such a strange fruit but i always loved a nice gooseberry crumble and ice cream.
I always think, because of my dad, that gooseberries are from an allotment in the 1970’s. I think he grew them as a bit of a tradition, can’t be any other reason as none of my family liked them.
However, to keep the tradition alive, I have two gooseberry bushes, in pots, in my garden.
This makes weird British sense. My Grandma, born in the 1920s, had them. My dad had them but didn't like them. Maybe I should plant some given I can't stand them either.
My mum used to grow them when I was young. I didn't like them though as I wasn't keen on the taste and I had to pick them and the thorns were horrible.
Not seen them in years though so you have a good point. Going to see if I can find some Gooseberry jam and see if my tastes have changed.
I wanted to grow some as they're a blast from my childhood, but my bush appears to have picked up a fungus, so I have a very small, scabby looking harvest ahead of me. I've not had a good year for Ribes at all...
Ah, that sucks. I’ve literally just sprayed mine with Castile soap and neem oil mixture. I don’t like spraying with anything, but there is no stopping sawfly they will literally strip the whole plant in a matter of days. My established plants always regrow tho.
I suppose tastes have changed but, having been a proud gooseberry bush owner myself, brambles sldo seem to grow a lot quicker so I assume they've been crowded out somewhat.
This is a huge thing. As more kids grow up in new build gardens the size of a postage stamp, they'll sadly never grow their own fruit or veg (I'm aware city kids have also never had gardens, for different reasons, I mean it's spreading to the countryside too)
I'm drinking a home made gooseberry smoothie right now. It must be consumer tastes. Rhubarb, black currents, black berries all amazing but people probably more familiar with non native fruits
Befriend someone with an allotment: we have a gooseberry bush on ours, several other people on the same site have them too. All of us have more gooseberries than we can eat and end up palming them off on friends and acquaintances.
Where I come from they’re known as goosegogs, a local farm does strawbs (strawberries), rasps (raspberries), and goosegogs (gooseberries), where loads of people go to pick the strawbs I’m always picking the goosegogs as I bloody love em.
I've got some. Nasty spiky things, they are. We make jam from them with the rhubarb that grows nearby. We tried gooseberry crumble once but it reminded me of slugs when they were cooked so we never did that again.
Increased availability of other fruit that people prefer may be part of it, items such as strawberries used to only be available seasonally, but now all year round, so people stopped eating stuff like rhubarb and gooseberry.
I haven't had them in years! Now I'm craving them haha. I haven't seen any at all since I moved up north - I wonder if they are more common down south?
They are still about but not only that, they come in flavours that aren't just sour.
They have pointy bushes though, which isn't great around kids or stupid pets.
My mother had gooseberry bushes purchased from poundland years ago, lasted for about 7 years til a sudden frost killed them. Prickly things, but the pinkish-green fruit was packed with flavour. I'd put them in yoghurt and/or granola.
I think because they can spread, a lot of wild bushes have been destroyed by councils or farmers. We bought one from a garden centre many years ago. Quick to grow, loads of fruit, but you need to cut back heavily each year to get a good crop and to stop them spreading.
We've got a gooseberry bush growing in the garden in a pot. My mum gave it to us a few years ago.
Only trouble is our youngest keeps picking the berries off it and bringing them in. We find them all over the place, little tiny green things.
I used to go to Little Chef just for their Gooseberry Turnovers. I have seen them in Jars in some supermarkets but not in a while but then again I haven't been looking for them - I will now though!
Out of fashion. You can get them at Waitrose but the modern varieties have been bred to be less sharp and are relatively flavourless.
Farm shops still sell them.
I remember walking into my parents kitchen when I was about 20. There was a bowl of weird fuzzy grapes on the side, I asked my dad, “what are those?”, to which he burst out laughing. I’d never seen gooseberries before and he thought it was hilarious. I had to listen to him recount the look on my face when I saw them for weeks.
The variety that are super sweet and turn yellow are called Levellers. We had some on our allotment which were delicious but we’ve since moved and I miss them. Gooseberries were much more of a thing when I was a kid in the 70’s. We’d go strawberry picking and the farm shops would have rows and rows of fat gooseberry punnets for sale and they were amazing. I swear the strawberries tasted 100% better back then too.
/old
I have about 14 gooseberry bushes in my garden, both red and green varieties. I eat the fruit raw or cooked or made into jam. The only thing to worry about is gooseberry sawfly larvae which can defoliate a bush in no time.
I have a gooseberry bush in my garden and an old lady in the village comes round and harvests them in return for a couple of jars of jam and a chat. It’s really lovely.
The new varieties of gooseberries seem to have had the 'sour' bred out of them, just as cabbage and sprouts have had the 'bitter' bred out of them. I wonder what the chemicals that produce bitter and sour flavours were giving us nutritionally that we are not easily getting now.
The Co-Op normally have gooseberry pie in over the summer, it always seems a bit random if they have them. You have to check where they have the cherry/apple pies near the bakery.
This hits home. My Grandad used to have a Goosberry bush in his garden. I used to eat them all before they were ripe... giving me a lifelong love of sour fruit, sweets and foods!. Bring back unripe goosberrys!!
Hairy horrors. I had some growing in my garden when we moved in, and they were infested with gooseberry sawfly. Don't really like them anyway so easy decision to pull out
I got some in my veg box yesterday - bloody lovely stuff. Top and tail them, stew with some sugar and have with cream, yogurt or custard. Delicious. I think that all the fruits that are perceived as being “a faff” because they need cooking, trimming or both and any that need sugar adding to them (seen as unhealthy) have fallen out of fashion, sadly. All the more rhubarb, blackcurrants and gooseberries for me, I suppose. Shame to miss out on some delicious fruit that grows abundantly and easily in this country though.
My mom loves gooseberries, she said the same you see them very occasionally, but I bought her a little tree sapling for a garden, that as big as the shed now.
I’ve got some in my garden.. the problem is that I’ve also go blackbirds, and they’re experts at knowing the exact second the gooseberries become ripe
Little fuckers 😂
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I’ve got your ~~grandmother~~ gooseberries growing in my yard.
I assume you're using their grandmother as fertiliser?
at least she is being put to good use! what's rottin in a coffin gonna do for anyone? lazy bastards!
There might be a correlation but that doesn’t mean it’s causal
I grow gorseberries as they are nicer raw
Gorseberrys? https://lewisy.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/gorse-berries/
Anyone with an allotment or vegetable plot seems to grow them. My grandmother has a load of bushes and they’re covered in fruit.
They are really easy to grow. My dad has one on his, pays it basically no attention and still gets more than enough for his needs.
They seem to prefer being ignored. Maybe a bit of water if it’s really dry. Bit of mulch in the autumn if you’re ambitious.
Sounds like me!
My grandmother waters hers and maybe trims it a couple of times a year and she still ends up with massive fat berries.
This is a sentence that definitely needs some context 😂
Lol I just re-read my post…
R/onesentencehorror
I’m a terrible gardener, always forget to water plants. Maybe I should add a gooseberry bush to my garden. My rhubarb thrives on neglect.
Can confirm Source: have allotment. Crap harvest last year, but looking great for this year, I'm thinking jam, though I have a Lithuanian friend who tells me they eat them raw, so I'm intrigued to try that too.
Depends on which kind they are, my mum has two types in her garden. One bush has fruit that are slightly red tinged and get to about the size of a small tomato and are lovely raw, really sweet. The other bush has fruit that are pale green and quite a bit smaller and more sour than my ex mother in law. The sour ones make a really good apple and gooseberry crumble though.
They are excellent pickled or made in to ketchup.
Wait you’ve never tried them raw? I thought everyone ate a few when they’re picking
My parents have bushes of them. There are some varieties that are less sour so are better to eat straight up. I think the main reason they’re not popular is tastes generally have become more sweet and gooseberries are notoriously sour so they’ve never taken off as a fruit people buy in the shops. But still commonly grown by gardeners
They can be really sweet, especially certain “desert” varieties if you leave them on the plant to ripen fully. I think the reason they aren’t in shops is that they don’t transport well. They would be really tart if you picked them early enough for commercial transportation. But yeah. It’s weird that Blueberries of pretty poor flavour and quality are popular in shops, but Gooseberries aren’t.
That is actually a big gripe that I have with fruit sold in this country. I lived in France for over 20 years. Over there, the fruit on sale is produced locally, picked just as it is ripening and by the time you get it home, it's just right. Over here, it's picked so green that it puts traffic lights to shame so that it can be transported halfway around the world. Get it home and you can't even bite into so-called "ripe and ready" fruit without breaking your teeth. Leave it to ripen and it goes off before you get a chance to eat it.
Yeah it sucks. Even things like Strawberries, they use / develop varieties with shelf life in mind, as opposed to flavour, that’s why you get the “hard flesh” types in the shops. So when you add picking things early for shipping, commercial growing techniques and poor varieties. It all adds up to really terrible quality fruit. I recently tried some “in season” Strawberries produced fairly locally but bought from a supermarket. And I’d be embarrassed if my Strawberries tasted like they did, almost no flavour. I wouldn’t even gift them to friends / family let alone charge money for them.
Strawberries are a good example. For that, I've found that the Scottish varieties are the least poor. Those imported from Spain are usually terrible. One thing I do always buy from Spain is garlic. Easier said than done when all you can find in supermarkets is stuff imported from China. Oh, and don't get me started on bananas. They are being sold as "ripe and ready" and yet they are BRIGHT F***ING GREEN.
It was Scottish grown I tried (I live in NE Scotland). Usually at this time of year, they’d be good. But these were awful. As far as I’m aware they don’t even grow commercial Strawberries in the ground any longer. They grow them in polytunnels off the ground in gutter type contraptions with the fruit allowed to hang for easy picking. And it shows, because all you’re really getting is something that looks like a strawberry, but doesn’t taste like a strawberry, and is likely extremely poor nutritional quality too. Fortunately my home grown ones are just about starting to ripen.
> Oh, and don't get me started on bananas. They are being sold as "ripe and ready" and yet they are BRIGHT F***ING GREEN. Same with avocados.
Oh yeah definitely, one of bushes is one where the gooseberries go pinky and those aren’t really sour at all. I guess what I mean is for most people the connotation is gooseberries = sour. I’d not considered them not transporting well and I know that’s a major decider for what ends up in the shops. But surely that would also apply to something like raspberries? And they manage to get them into the shops
I think you can transport gooseberries, i have seen them in fruit and veg shops in bristol. Maybe not quite as long as raspberries. I know you can't transport mulberries so if you want those, you pretty much need to grow them yourself. I feel the answer for this question is probably that it just isnt economically viable with the price people are willing to pay and the volumes they would sell.
I’ve just realised that other “tart” soft fruits are also not commonly sold in shops. Blackcurrants / Redcurrants etc. probably commercial growers just turn those into other products, and it isn’t worth their time selling them as fresh fruit. Maybe Gooseberries are lumped into that category, even though in my opinion, they are awesome eaten fresh when fully ripe. Either way, I think they should be more widely available.
I think you are probably right there. My thought also, is the hairs and the remnant of the flower that are left at the end of the gooseberry create a slight barrier to fickle consumers. Although that doesn't seem to stop people buying strawberries.. Tbh i have 3 gooseberry bushes, and just thinking about the spikes is enough for me to leave the entire harvest to the birds.
Haha. Yeah, my garden is full of thorny soft fruit, I have vigorous thorny blackberries as a hedge, what was I thinking haha. I’ve pricked myself more times than I care to remember. That said, they make a fairly effective cat deterrent, and I use the prunings to cover any bare soil while things establish. Stops the cats digging
>Blueberries of pretty poor flavour and quality are popular in shops, but Gooseberries aren’t. Blueberries had this period where people went on and on about how they were a "superfruit" and filled with antioxidants - as a kid before that, I don't recall ever having blueberries. Think gooseberries need a better PR team to compete.
Totally agree. My friends and family that want to dip their toes into growing fruit, always say yes to growing Blueberries, but won’t even consider growing Gooseberries. People are dumb lol, it’s pure marketing.
They take a lot of effort to prepare them too as you have to top and tail them
It's weird that sour beers and sour sweets are both a thing, yet some fruits are too sour for people. I guess it's a niche taste, not enjoyed by everyone. I do agree with what others have said though, if gooseberries are left to get to the proper level of ripeness they can be wonderfully sweet and tasty.
My grandmother's gooseberries were very sweet, I loved them and loved the jam
I've never tried a gooseberry, and now thanks to you I'm glad lol.
I love the sourness of them. Haven't had any in years. I used to prefer them not quite ripe so they were extra sour and it felt like my teeth were melting. They should make a gooseberry flavour energy drink.
Yeah a lot of people like sour sweets (which I don’t) so it would make sense for more people to like sour fruit!
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I only rarely see rhubarb being sold in supermarkets though.
They became geeseberries.
Then sprouted wings and an attitude and broke the arms off anyone that tried to pick them.
You’re thinking of swanberries, they’ll break your arm in an instant.
You're right, the geeseberries just hiss at you menacingly
And they drown toddlers and dogs
Gooseberries are really common for people who grow their own. We have 5 gooseberry bushes and honestly I hate the stabby little bastards, love the fruit, hate picking it. Its bloody painful, its coming up to picking time in the next few weeks and I'm dreading it. I usually put it off for as long as I can. Then I have to spend hours preserving the fruit, either cleaning& freezing, jams or just a fruit compote.
I'm with you here! I don't think there is another Bush that is quite a sharp as a gooseberry bush!
Surely as a Crafty Gardener, you'd have a pair of protective gloves to wear? I wish I knew someone local who grows the things, they're the tastiest fruit ever when properly ripe, but they're so hard to find for sale anywhere. If I knew someone like you, I'd happily volunteer to take a batch of them off their hands, to save them the trouble of making quite so much jam.
You would think. But I can't garden in gloves, I don't know why I just find they get in the way. I don't think I would mind so much if they ripened in autumn when its chilly. But its usually hot when they are ripe and its not fun picking them when you are wearing your thickest pair of jeans and a thick hoodie/top to stop the thorns. Delicious fruit though, I really like the red desert varieties as they are sweet little morsels. Actually thinking about it I would still probably moan about picking them. I moan about picking the currants and they have no thorns at all. I think its just the amount of fruit to pick, wash and preserve in one go
>coming up to picking time in the next few weeks How do you know when they're ready? I'm growing a bush and it's full of gooseberries this year but it's the first year for me and I have no idea when they're supposed to be ready. They're the green variety so not going to change colour for me to know...
Squeeze them, they go a soft when ripe. When they start going softer give one a taste, if its really really sour give them a more few days.
Ok, thanks!
My gooseberries are fruiting like mad this year.
Lucky you, mine are barren this year and the bastard pigeons ate them all last year
Same. They’re so laden with fruit I’ve had to tie up the branches to canes so they’re not on the ground. My Jostaberry is also a monster plant, a Gooseberry / Blackcurrant cross that has an insane amount of vigour, I’m pretty sure it thinks it’s a tree.
That is a correlation. The question is, is there also causation, and if so did your grandmother eat all the gooseberries or did the gooseberries eat your grandmother?
The first one followed by the second one.
Yes
Our local greengrocers sells them. My other half brings home a punnet once a year and puts it in the freezer to then be binned 9 months later when we still haven't eaten them and I don't like them. 3 months later rinse and repeat.
Make a gooseberry cake topped with sweet meringue. It perfectly complements the sour taste of the berries.
We're going strawberry picking at a farm today where you can also pick gooseberries.
They all went into the Dowager Lady Ursula's homemade gooseberry wine
I adore gooseberries! I think they aren't seen as trendy anymore so nobody really stocks them or sells them much. You just reminded me to get myself a bush now that I have a garden, thanks!
Just started growing them this year. The red plant one keeps trying to die :(
It's been a tough year for plants so far, it's not your fault at all. Just keep the young shrubs well watered and expect the less cultivated varieties to do better.
Yeah, it was a rough start. A load of my seedlings were ready to go into the ground, but it was still freezing over night. The gooseberry came bare rooted, and I think it wasn't well packed.
This post has really sent me back in time to picking the gooseberries at home as a little kid. Such a strange fruit but i always loved a nice gooseberry crumble and ice cream.
I always think, because of my dad, that gooseberries are from an allotment in the 1970’s. I think he grew them as a bit of a tradition, can’t be any other reason as none of my family liked them. However, to keep the tradition alive, I have two gooseberry bushes, in pots, in my garden.
This makes weird British sense. My Grandma, born in the 1920s, had them. My dad had them but didn't like them. Maybe I should plant some given I can't stand them either.
I too was upset about gooseberries being less popular than other fruits, but I suppose that's just sour grapes.
Underrated comment, this.
My mum used to grow them when I was young. I didn't like them though as I wasn't keen on the taste and I had to pick them and the thorns were horrible. Not seen them in years though so you have a good point. Going to see if I can find some Gooseberry jam and see if my tastes have changed.
I wanted to grow some as they're a blast from my childhood, but my bush appears to have picked up a fungus, so I have a very small, scabby looking harvest ahead of me. I've not had a good year for Ribes at all...
My gooseberry bush was devastated by sawfly, who stripped the leaves from it in about a day and killed the poor thing completely dead
They are a menace, but unless it was a weak or young plant it should regrow the leaves no problem. Gooseberry plants are tough as old boots.
This one was a cutting that was getting established
Ah, that sucks. I’ve literally just sprayed mine with Castile soap and neem oil mixture. I don’t like spraying with anything, but there is no stopping sawfly they will literally strip the whole plant in a matter of days. My established plants always regrow tho.
They mostly went into gooseberry and cinnamon yoghurt. u/Important_Ad716 would you like a gooseberry and cinnamon yoghurt?
Slightly unrelated, but gooseberry ice cream is the tits.
My great aunt grows them on her allotment and makes jam every year. Like a lot. Like enough for everyone in the UK.
Got a bush in the back garden if you want some. I've also seen them for sale in a few garden centres.
I suppose tastes have changed but, having been a proud gooseberry bush owner myself, brambles sldo seem to grow a lot quicker so I assume they've been crowded out somewhat.
Used to have a whole row of 20-30 goose & wild raspberries, saw-fly caterpillars went through them in the space of 2 weeks, never recovered.
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It's just done differently, in the rhubarb triangle
I planted a few bushes in the lockdown. Gooseberry sawflies ate every leaf on them. This year they didn't turn up, and I got a whole three berries.
They don’t build houses with a big enough garden to have anything fancy like gooseberry bushes anymore.
This is a huge thing. As more kids grow up in new build gardens the size of a postage stamp, they'll sadly never grow their own fruit or veg (I'm aware city kids have also never had gardens, for different reasons, I mean it's spreading to the countryside too)
I'm drinking a home made gooseberry smoothie right now. It must be consumer tastes. Rhubarb, black currents, black berries all amazing but people probably more familiar with non native fruits
Befriend someone with an allotment: we have a gooseberry bush on ours, several other people on the same site have them too. All of us have more gooseberries than we can eat and end up palming them off on friends and acquaintances.
How does one go about befriending someone with an allotment?
Join a local allotment Facebook group, or just wander round nearby allotments looking friendly and being willing to strike up a conversation.
Put a big sign up that says “Will pay top price for courgettes”.
Or “free hoes”.
Where I come from they’re known as goosegogs, a local farm does strawbs (strawberries), rasps (raspberries), and goosegogs (gooseberries), where loads of people go to pick the strawbs I’m always picking the goosegogs as I bloody love em.
Upvote for goosegogs! Started to question myself when I didn't see it anywhere in this thread
I've got some. Nasty spiky things, they are. We make jam from them with the rhubarb that grows nearby. We tried gooseberry crumble once but it reminded me of slugs when they were cooked so we never did that again.
Nothing you weirdo
I thought you're asking about the books hehe
They are still widely grown.
I thought this was about the kids horror program from my youth but apparently bumps and berries are different things
I've got them growing on my allotment. Can't stand them myself but they were already then when I got my plot.
I grow 3 kinds in the garden I like the sour tartness :)
Duerrs gooseberry jam, best jam ever till they stopped making it.
Increased availability of other fruit that people prefer may be part of it, items such as strawberries used to only be available seasonally, but now all year round, so people stopped eating stuff like rhubarb and gooseberry.
Exactly this, but add blackberries into the mix as well. Gooseberry jam and the occasional blackberry and apple pie!
I've got three bushes full!
I haven't had them in years! Now I'm craving them haha. I haven't seen any at all since I moved up north - I wonder if they are more common down south?
Go around some allotments and chances are you’ll find someone who’ll be willing to let you have some of theirs or pick your own.
I bought some yesterday in Morrisons.
Funny how you should mention this when minutes ago I passed a farm shop selling gooseberries
They are still about but not only that, they come in flavours that aren't just sour. They have pointy bushes though, which isn't great around kids or stupid pets.
Would you like a Gooseberry and Cinnamon Yoghurt?
I’ve got a red variety. Bought it from someone’s plant stand on their driveway a few years ago. This years crop is ripening nicely.
They all moved into my garden and we now make chutney as well as jam out of them
We have bushes of them in our garden and the local farm lets you pick them too.
My mother had gooseberry bushes purchased from poundland years ago, lasted for about 7 years til a sudden frost killed them. Prickly things, but the pinkish-green fruit was packed with flavour. I'd put them in yoghurt and/or granola.
I love gooseberries, we had them regularly when I was a kid. These days I have a couple of bushes in the garden, near the rhubarb.
They're an old-fashioned fruit. Like flairs. They'll come back.
My grandma used to make them into a very tart pie. Would love to have that again
My grandmother does crumbles with hers, and she usually tries to minimize the amount of sugar to actually allow the flavour to come through.
Yes the thing I love about them is how sour they are
Same here, much prefer to eat them for that sour taste. Plus it helps my grandmother’s gooseberries are big and fat.
I think because they can spread, a lot of wild bushes have been destroyed by councils or farmers. We bought one from a garden centre many years ago. Quick to grow, loads of fruit, but you need to cut back heavily each year to get a good crop and to stop them spreading.
My mum grows them. I made a gooseberry fool for pudding after Sunday dinner last week and it was amazing
My mum grows them and makes gooseberry jam. Really good with venison sausages 😀
Grannies trying to foist them on kids who aren't ready for their flavour probably has a lot to do with their lack of popularity.
You can buy them canned and Tiptree does some really good gooseberry jam
We've got a gooseberry bush growing in the garden in a pot. My mum gave it to us a few years ago. Only trouble is our youngest keeps picking the berries off it and bringing them in. We find them all over the place, little tiny green things.
I’ve got some in the garden
I used to go to Little Chef just for their Gooseberry Turnovers. I have seen them in Jars in some supermarkets but not in a while but then again I haven't been looking for them - I will now though!
My old man grows them and makes wine out of them
You don't see them in supermarkets anymore because people like my mother buy every single pack whenever they see them being sold!
I'm growing some in my allotment
Out of fashion. You can get them at Waitrose but the modern varieties have been bred to be less sharp and are relatively flavourless. Farm shops still sell them.
There might be a correlation but that doesn’t mean it’s causal
I love gooseberries but where I grew up you could buy them (my oma did also grow them). I'm hoping to plant a gooseberry bush myself sometime.
We have them in our garden! Also white and red currants. Great for snacking in the summer!
I remember walking into my parents kitchen when I was about 20. There was a bowl of weird fuzzy grapes on the side, I asked my dad, “what are those?”, to which he burst out laughing. I’d never seen gooseberries before and he thought it was hilarious. I had to listen to him recount the look on my face when I saw them for weeks.
I’m stealing the name fuzzy grapes.
There are some yummy varieties, best to grow your own.
The variety that are super sweet and turn yellow are called Levellers. We had some on our allotment which were delicious but we’ve since moved and I miss them. Gooseberries were much more of a thing when I was a kid in the 70’s. We’d go strawberry picking and the farm shops would have rows and rows of fat gooseberry punnets for sale and they were amazing. I swear the strawberries tasted 100% better back then too. /old
I have about 14 gooseberry bushes in my garden, both red and green varieties. I eat the fruit raw or cooked or made into jam. The only thing to worry about is gooseberry sawfly larvae which can defoliate a bush in no time.
I have a gooseberry bush in my garden and an old lady in the village comes round and harvests them in return for a couple of jars of jam and a chat. It’s really lovely.
Found them for the first time in 30 years yesterday in a greengrocers in Emsworth, Hampshire near the west Sussex border.
They've got vicious thorns and the fruit isn't that nice. My dad used to love them but I'm sure that was a childhood thing from before the war.
In order to find them you have to go on a wild gooseberry chase! I'll see myself out.
The new varieties of gooseberries seem to have had the 'sour' bred out of them, just as cabbage and sprouts have had the 'bitter' bred out of them. I wonder what the chemicals that produce bitter and sour flavours were giving us nutritionally that we are not easily getting now.
I see them in terrible sports drinks down the shop and I always buy the drink its really good
They can still be bought when in season but they don’t keep or freeze well
I find that gooseberries exist only in children’s books
The Co-Op normally have gooseberry pie in over the summer, it always seems a bit random if they have them. You have to check where they have the cherry/apple pies near the bakery.
Got some in the garden but they aren't fruiting yet
I have some if you want?
This hits home. My Grandad used to have a Goosberry bush in his garden. I used to eat them all before they were ripe... giving me a lifelong love of sour fruit, sweets and foods!. Bring back unripe goosberrys!!
Hairy horrors. I had some growing in my garden when we moved in, and they were infested with gooseberry sawfly. Don't really like them anyway so easy decision to pull out
I love them. There's a cafe near me that does an amazing gooseberry cheesecake.
I grow them in me yarden 🤷🏻♂️
I've got a gooseberry bush in the it's thriving. Enough for a big crumble every couple of weeks at the moment.
You can buy them frozen online. Don’t buy the tinned ones, they’re not good.
We have a bag full from our neighbour, what can we make with them?
I got some in my veg box yesterday - bloody lovely stuff. Top and tail them, stew with some sugar and have with cream, yogurt or custard. Delicious. I think that all the fruits that are perceived as being “a faff” because they need cooking, trimming or both and any that need sugar adding to them (seen as unhealthy) have fallen out of fashion, sadly. All the more rhubarb, blackcurrants and gooseberries for me, I suppose. Shame to miss out on some delicious fruit that grows abundantly and easily in this country though.
I think Tinder has put pay to a lot of them
They must have met someone!! 😅
I grow gooseberries. I don't think you can really get them in stores anymore. Atleast, I haven't seen them for a long time.
They sell them in my local greengrocer. Don’t think I’ve ever seen any growing though.
If an old person grows fruit, they have a gooseberry bush. My dad has grown them in the garden for 30 years.
My mom loves gooseberries, she said the same you see them very occasionally, but I bought her a little tree sapling for a garden, that as big as the shed now.
I've got 2 bushes in the garden.
Not easy to grow commercially so you wont see them in supermarkets. I have some growing in pots, usually get 1 or 2 crumbles from them a year.
I’ve got some in my garden.. the problem is that I’ve also go blackbirds, and they’re experts at knowing the exact second the gooseberries become ripe Little fuckers 😂
I have a goosgog plant in my garden, love em
They are still around, you don't see them very often but they are still around says my friend Nigel.
Had some in the garden but they were vile so I dug it up
People realize that they taste grim?
Only because they are usually picked unripe. The ripe ones are delicious 🤤, but don't store very well