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?
They still are, and in honour of my grandad, dad and northern allotments, the first thing I planted in my Harringey garden was a gooseberry bush and rhubarb.
The Perry Court Farm stand at the farmers market in Islington (Sundays 10-2pm: http://lfm.org.uk/markets/islington/ ) has both green and reddish-purple gooseberries every summer.
You can usually get gooseberries at the little market at the top end of Hollway Road (Archway Market). There are a few stalls out on the pavement on a Saturday, and they even have a website http://www.archwaymarket.org/.
I got a load of goosberries from there last year and was in bliss for a little while. mmmmm.
I believe gooseberries are only in season for a few weeks every year, which would explain why they're hard to find. If everyone on this thread plants a gooseberry bush in their garden now, we could organise our own min-gooseberry-festival every year B-))
B***** H****! Now you've sent me into a spin. Look at all those. Now all I need is a green grocer that sells just one or two of the big fact golden eating variety.
I love gooseberries, sadly husband has a slight phobia of them - hairy fruit plus bad childhood experience (he refuses to enlighten me) and so won't grow them in our garden. I did see some in Morrisons on Saturday £2 for a very small looking punnet - I would have gobbled them up in seconds!
Agree with Katy sorry it has to be cream on my crumble - extra thick
If you do find any gooseberries they are very easy to freeze - you spread them out on a baking tray and freeze, then store in plastic boxes. Raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries etc can also be frozen in this way. Actually you can just go ahead and freeze in the punnet, but they might be a bit squashed and mushy when de-frosted, depends what you want to use them for. I sometimes wash them first and sometimes don't - not sure if it makes much difference. (Blackberries I usually wash in case of spiders!)
I used frozen blackberries instead of ice-cubes in a summer punch once - very popular.
One year I made gooseberry jam - it took loads of (expensive) berries to make a couple of little pots and although it was lovely, I don't think it's the best use of what is clearly becoming a rare resource.
Oops, I'm beginning to sound like a domestic goddess, but I'm actually very lazy in the kitchen.