The article on the home page has a picture of gooseberries that are red. The ones I grow are green. Is there a red variety for sale or are the green berries left until they turn red?

yup, red, green, yellow, pink, yellow white, or dark purple. depends on variety I hear.

Really? I know there are red, white, pink and black currants but was not aware that there are those colors in gooseberries. I have to check out who would be selling these different varieties. I love gooseberries.

Would you tell us how to use gooseberries? I had plants offered to me but not knowing what I'd do with the fruit

Apparently, easy to start from cuttings.

@sallyg I have yet to make this myself but my mother made a biscuit type crust in a flan pan then she cooked the gooseberries with sugar and a bit of water. She put in cornstarch to thicken the juice and then spread this mixture over the crust. Once everything had cooled we topped it off with sweetened whipped cream. It was sour but I love sour things and the sweet cream helped cut some of the tartness.

You could also use the gooseberries to make jam which I have never attempted to make. There is too much work involved in making jams and jellies and I haven't got the patience for that.

I've also had gooseberry cake. No idea what the recipe was since it was a coworker a long time ago who made it but it was good.

Here's a bunch of recipes for you.

https://adamantkitchen.com/goo...

I used to eat them raw, with wild grapes when I was out hunting .

The wild gooseberries around here are green. My mom used to make a 2-crust pie with them that almost everyone loved. I have to say that I never tried the pie because the cooked green gooseberries looked like so much like snot that I couldn't get past that.

Ate them raw, too, but sprinkled them with plenty of sugar first!

hawkeye_daddy said: I have to say that I never tried the pie because the cooked green gooseberries looked like so much like snot that I couldn't get past that.

I never looked at them that way but now that you pointed it out another cooked gooseberry may never pass my lips again. Now that we are talking snot, what do you think of cooked okra? Now that is some seriously slimey mucousy snot.

Okra wasn't something anyone in the family grew, so didn't have any experience with it as a kid. Later on, the only person I knew who grew it always dried it and turned it into a powder. Said it was good to thicken soups and stews, but by then it wasn't green anymore.

Spinach was another matter. Nobody really knew how to cook that, and therefore, nobody was rushing to eat it when it was overcooked and nasty. But it couldn't go to waste because of all the children starving in the world, so we didn't get a choice in the matter. At least gooseberry pie was beloved enough that no one forced you to eat it!

It's an argument right there for red gooseberries

We used to eat Gooseberries along with Currants right off the bush as children. ...growing up in East Germany..__

@Ursula were the berries in Germany large or just average (smaller) size? We bought some once from a man in a nearby town that were a close to 1" in diameter. One local grocery store also offered some large ones (but only once). These growers must have used some real good manure or special fertilizer! I wish I had a piece of torte right now but will have to wait until late summer and try to pick the gooseberries before the chipmunks grab them all.

Tigerpaws, those Gooseberries were in the one half inch to a one inch in size. And very delicious!

Bought a very small red gooseberry plant at tractor supply a few years ago. After a few years it produced some nice berries that I ate raw as I remember doing as a child picking the neighbors berries. Supposed to be high in vitamin C. Do have some problems with tiny green larvae of the Gooseberry sawfly.

We have wild pink gooseberries up in the mountains here. They are slightly less tart than the white ones growing on my place. I keep meaning to go up there and take a cutting so I can grow them in my garden but I haven't yet.

MochaJoe said: Do have some problems with tiny green larvae of the Gooseberry sawfly.

Yes sawfly larvae, me too, every year. I will be thinking the bushes look healthy and promising and if I don't keep watch will come out one day and each and every bush has been stripped of its leaves. It looks awful. All I use on the bushes when I see the larvae is RAID fly spray. The sawflies don't only devour the leaves of my gooseberries but also my currant and josta berry . One good thing, the berries are still left on the bushes.

They are so tiny and their color makes them hard to see.

Gary, I don't have a problem seeing them. They are already decent sized caterpillars. bright green and black, when I notice them. I may not see them when they are at the tiny stage but once I notice the leaves disappearing and the poop the caterpillars leave I start the yearly battle.

Guess mine were at that tiny stage when I first noticed leaf damage .even at that stage they can quickly defoliate a branch as you know. Good luck on this seasons crop