Gooseberries!

[prairiemom]

I just got my first crop of gooseberries since planting them 3 yrs ago. (We missed them last year because the animals got to them before we did.) Here's the pie and jam that I made this week:
http://www.providenthomecompanion.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/P7260012-300x224.jpg
(I also made a batch of raspberry jam this week. Raspberries aren't doing too well with the drought this year.)

If you don't have gooseberries, they really are a treat. You can read my observations on them in my blog: http://www.providenthomecompanion.com/gooseberries/

[loquaciousmomma]

Looks tempting! :)

[Justme]

I am so glad I read your blog. I lived in the Rocky Mountains every summer and we harvested what we call wild gooseberries for the most delicious jelly I have tasted. I have also had gooseberry pie from the green gooseberries that were grown in the valley but thought they were entirely different than the mountain purple variety. Maybe the valley dwellers just didn't let their's get ripe. The green berry pie was very good but the purple jelly is so flavorful.

After I left home my dad would pick the berries and bring a bottle of the juice to me to make jelly when I had time. I never used the last jar he brought to me before he died, just wanted to save it forever as a reminder of him and his service to me in bringing me something that I loved so much.

Now, after reading your blog, I am going to buy some nursery stock gooseberry bushes so I can see if ripening them to purple before harvesting will get me the good flavor I remember from my dad's mountain berries.

Thanks.

[prairiemom]

Justme, I was so very touched by your comments. It really illustrates how sharing food and a love for nature binds the generations together. When I was little my grandmother would always have a bowl of cherry tomatoes sitting on her counter, like a bowl of candy. There would be cherry tomatoes of all shapes and colors. So today I always plant at least 2-3 different varieties of cherry tomatoes to remember her by. (I used to plant 4-6, but that gave us waaaaaayyyy to many cherries.:l0 (48): ) So even though my kids have never known her, I hope I am providing a tangible link to her for them.