Gooseberry ( Ribes uva-crispa )

Fruit Warehouse | Gooseberry ( Ribes uva-crispa ) | Gooseberry bushes Produce an edible fruit and are grown on both a commercial and domestic basis. The gooseberry is a straggling bush growing to 1-3 meters (3-10 feet) tall, the branches being thickly set with sharp spines, standing out singly or in diverging Tufts of two or three from the bases of the short spurs or lateral leaf shoots. The fruit of wild gooseberries is smaller than in the cultivated varieties, but is Often of good flavor; Generally it is hairy, but in one variety smooth, constituting the R. uva-crispa of writers; berries' color is usually green, but there are red variants and occasionally deep purple berries occur.

Of the many hundred varieties enumerated in recent Horticultural works, few equal in flavor Perhaps some of the older denizens of the fruit-garden, Such as the Hairy Old Rough Red and Amber. The gooseberry in the south of England will grow well in cool Situations, and may be seen in gardens Sometimes near London flourishing under the partial shade of apple trees; but in the north it needs full exposure to the sun to bring the fruit to perfection.

Large berries can be produced by heavy composting, ESPECIALLY if the majority of the fruit is picked off while small to allow room for a few berries to continue to grow. Grafting of gooseberry vines onto ornamental golden Currants (Ribes Aurum) or other Ribes species can be helpful for this purpose. Some 19th-and early 20th-century cultivators produced single gooseberries near to two ounces in weight, but, as with many varieties of fruit, larger sizes of gooseberry proved to have weaker flavor.

Gooseberries can be preserved in the form of jams, dried fruit, or as the primary or a secondary ingredient in pickling, or stored in sugar syrup.