Gooseberries play an important part in my fruitcage.
These tough old natives are more versatile than it's often acknowledged. The tart little berries traditionally picked in June need lots of sugar to be palatable, but before sugar became readily available towards the end of the 18th century gooseberries were used in savoury, not dessert, dishes. Their sharp, lemony flavour was - and still can be - used with fish or for stuffing a fatty goose.
In the 16th century monks even used gooseberries in recipes for beers, a trick that's growing in popularity again. During a secondary fermentation, Scottish gooseberries produce a pale golden beer with a refreshing fruit aroma, a fruity wheat flavour and a crisp finish. And writing in 1724, John Worlidge suggested using gooseberries to make a delicious wine, noting that "you cannot solace yourself enough with a finer summer repast". He went further by telling us that gooseberries "will yield the best brandy of any of our fruits and very near as good as the best French brandy".
Although you may not want to turn your hand to distilling, you can use your first pickings in savoury dishes. When thinning the crop, I remove half the berries and leave the rest to grow larger, ripen and become mouthwateringly sweet. Most varieties, even those described as "culinary", develop an intense flavour by August. This way you can enjoy two distinct crops from the same bush, one in May/June, the other in August.
But all may not be so plain sailing. Your fruits may be small and coated with a brown felt-like substance, or the bush may have been stripped bare of leaves. You can't solve these problems now but you can take preventative steps for next year.
American gooseberry mildew, which produces the felt-like coating, was introduced to the UK a little over a century ago. Autumn or early winter pruning should defeat it, since pruning increases air circulation through and round a bush.
Either train the plant against a wall or along wires. Alternatively, open up the centre and limit growth to four or five main stems. With gooseberry mildew, remove and destroy damaged shoots and fruit, clearing up any debris, then keep the surrounding area well weeded and open.
Good garden hygiene also helps prevent the sawfly's leaf-stripping destruction. Starting in May, the sawfly lays eggs close to leaf veins. As Worlidge noted: "Caterpillars do form themselves on the back part of their leaves, and eat them to that degree that these little shrubs remain bare."
A century later, Patrick Neil suggested his readers should "prevent the extensive ravages of caterpillars by employing persons [women and children] to pick them off". Times and attitudes have happily changed and we now know how the pest operates, enabling the use of less soul-destroying solutions.
After taking a month to destroy a leaf, a caterpillar drops to the ground, where it stays as a cocoon for three weeks. The adult then emerges and flies up to the bush to lay eggs. After a week, the larvae hatch and repeat the cycle. A third generation of caterpillars overwinters in the soil, before repeating the cycle in April.
So, by clearing and hand-forking the ground beneath the bush, you remove many cocoons and expose others to the beaks of questing birds. In early spring, place a sheet of cardboard or thick layer of newspaper on the ground and cover with biodegradable material - compost, leafmould, woodchip or grass clippings. This should impede emerging flies. The process of eradication may take two or three years.
Some time ago, I had chickens in the fruitcage and found they had no interest in sawfly larvae. But the following summer, the bushes were clean, my hens having feasted on the cocoons.
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