Berried Treasures - Gooseberries

There seems about gooseberries, Ribes uva-crispa, to be something peculiarly attractive to northwestern Europeans. Despite being native to Europe, Caucasus, and North Africa it seems only in England, Scotland, Scandinavia and, perhaps, Russia that the fruit has maintained a popularity. There are problems, of course. The metre or so high shrubs have spiny branches. Not kept pruned and in an area with good air movement, they are prone to mildew. Growing is banned outright or restricted in much of the U.S. True, gooseberries, like their cousins the currants, may act as cohosts of the white pine blister rust disease. This excuse is considered dubious elsewhere, on par with the claims of certain presidents. Then there remains the preparation of the hairy berries, an operation known as 'top and tailing.' This involved pinching off the green stem and dead blossom of each individual fruit. Falstaff may have had something when Shakespeare had him declare that somethings "are not worth a gooseberry," in Henry IV Part II.

Nevertheless, given a sunny situation or the lightest of shade, vigorous pruning and limited fertilizing and composted manure, the resulting crop will be much appreciated by fanciers. Presumably one of these was Chekhov. In his short story Gooseberries, the fruit is depicted as either hard and sour, or delicious. He could be correct. Today's supermarkets, purveyors of gas-ripened fruit and other monstrosities, offer hard, green, bitter berries that have a longer store life. Properly ripened, they may serve in jams, pies, and pasties; a sauce was traditional served with lamb in England. And there, also, are 'fools'--crushed gooseberries mixed into a custard. Was it possibly in Edwardian times that it made a petulant wine? "I had better procure another quart of this gooseberry cider and take it along," P. G. Wodehouse has one of his characters declaim in Joy in the Morning. As early as the mid-1700s, in England's Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and the Midlands there was a developing passion for growing gooseberries. Clubs formed and within a century it is claimed there were over 700 varieties of gooseberry and some 170 shows devoted to 'goosegogs.' While very few remain, they are as active as ever. Still, as with raspberries, the fruit has entered popular language. 'Gooseberry eyes' refers to one with bulging, pale peepers. 'Playing gooseberry' involves a third, unwelcome party in a courtship. And the ever-popular reference to having been born (or found) under a gooseberry bush as an explanation for a newly-arrived baby might not be so widely disseminated if it was known it originated from 19^th-century slang for pubic hair.