When I was a kid my ma used to buy big fat juicy gooseberries from the greengrocer's. You'd bite the end off and suck out the sweet insides. Yummy! I don't see them any more. Does anyone know where I can get any?
And Sainsbury's has them today as well - £3 for two punnets or large green ones. Hurry as they don't have many! (Especially since I bought two and the lady at the checkout said "Ooh gooseberries, I must buy some!"
On holiday in Dorset and had homemade gooseberry pie with ice cream at The Lobster Pot cafe at Portland Bill overlooking sea. Wonderful - i thought of harringayonline whilst tucking in! They were the small cooking variety - sweetish.
The Food Programme on Radio 4 today bemoaned the disappearance of traditional British berries (gooseberry, blackcurrant etc.) in favour of the - to me rather bland - blueberry which has been heavily marketed as a so called "superfood", which is true of all these fruits.
Blueberries are much harder to grow here and have to be imported, so their carbon footprint is high. We still grow a lot of blackcurrants in this country but nearly all of them are made into Ribeana (yuk!)
Parkside Pick-Your-Own has blackcurrants on offer. I went last week for raspberries and strawberries but they also had blackcurrent bushes for picking. It was recommended by another HoL'er and is a fantastic place. Tons (well, perhaps not quite so many), but acres given over to soft fruit and veg.
I heard this too (on the Radio 4 programme Maddy mentions), and thought of this discussion. They actually said that M&S was selling some gooseberries - sounded like the reddish sweet ones - but (bizarrely) weren't calling them gooseberries. I can't remember the name being used - anyone else? Go figure?!
Inspired by Julie W and Justin Guest I've just got back from an afternoon cycle up to Parkside PYO. No gooseberries (apparently they do have them in punnets when in season) but a highly successful haul of giant blackberries and raspberries. It's a really nice spot.
I also took possibly the most convoluted route back (that will teach me not to check a map at any point) but at least I got to visit Edmonton on my way home... er....
Sainsbury's have Kent " cooking " gooseberries at £1.99 for 400g.
Hard, green, sour and pretty tasteless but probably ok in a crumble or tart with lots of sugar.
at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2010/jul/27/food-and-d... in response to question about berries someone posted this
Having listened to a prog about this on R4 on the way home yesterday, I think the saddest thing is that our own blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries are not more freely available. Apparently Marks and Sparks have started selling a particular sweet breed of gooseberry under the name "faeberry" - ffs - but I can't remember the last time I saw gooseberries in the shops.
why wouldn't M+S call them Gooseberries?