The gooseberries should be ready in the next week or so.
The advice that I give people about fruits is to be brave enough to get away from the traditional fruits and develop recipes for those that grow the easiest and best in your area.
Asparagus, rhubarb and gooseberries are pretty well guaranteed perennial crops for me with very little work on my part. They are all disease and pest resistant on this particular property if planted well. Rhubarb can be seen here growing with abandon happily around old barns and farmhouses long ago uninhabited.
Gooseberries grow like weeds here and other than the occasional soil input for fertilization and annual pruning they are carefree. Yet I see them in very few gardens because I think no one knows what to do with them. Because of their ease of growth they are a perfect candidate for my gardens. I have NEVER sprayed my gooseberries for anything in 6 years.
They are super easy to propagate from just letting a limb touch the ground and root then digging and relocating. I am up to 8 bushes and have stopped myself. I pick them just as they start to ripen as we like them a bit sour for a pie similar to lemon pie with a sour bite. By picking them a bit sour I also beat the birds to them because they like them dead ripe. They do prefer a little afternoon shade here but one thing I have is shade. Now traditionally gooseberries can have problems with mildew but I plant mine with plenty space apart and prune them religiously to open for air circulation and thus far in 6 years have not had a problem. Knock on wood.
There are a ton of recipes out there for gooseberries from jam to wine but I tend to stick with pie filling with mine and it is now one of my kids and grandkids favorites.
Grow what you eat and eat what you can grow easily!
Blessings from The Holler
The Canned Quilter
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I've heard of gooseberries but never have tried them. I do love rhubarb. Eventually I hope to move to an area where I can grow these. How are you doing with ticks this year?
ReplyDeleteDr. Alice I don't suffer too much from ticks here. Maybe because I am fenced in and don't have as many deer etc on this property. I also let my ducks run free range a great deal and even let my chickens out some with supervision. I also keep the grass low. It all helps!
ReplyDeleteI have never tried gooseberries! I've thought about planting some berry bushes but so far only have a few blueberry bushes (that aren't growing really well.)
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