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How to pick currants
3 min read
Almost impossible to buy in America and not much easier to find growing, for a reason that has nothing to do with taste.
8
farms
5
regions
June to August
picked
When you can pick currants
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Across every region on Pickeria. Darker months are peak somewhere; your own region is narrower, and the table below gives it.
What to look for
- 1
Pick the whole strig, which is the little stem the berries hang from, rather than berry by berry. Grip it at the top and pull gently, and you take fifteen berries at once
- 2
Strip them off the strig later with a fork, at home, over a bowl. Doing it in the field takes four times as long and crushes half of them
- 3
Red and white currants are ripe when the whole strig has coloured evenly and the berries are translucent. Blackcurrants ripen from the top of the strig down, so give the lowest berries a few more days
- 4
Taste before you commit. Redcurrants are sharp by design and are meant for cooking; blackcurrants are muskier and deeper. Neither is a snacking berry and nobody should pretend otherwise
- 5
Wear long sleeves for gooseberries if the farm grows those too. Currants are thornless and gooseberries emphatically are not
What people get wrong
Every one of these is common enough to be worth naming.
- Picking berry by berry instead of taking the whole strig, which takes four times as long
- Stripping the berries off the strig in the field, which crushes half of them
- Judging a blackcurrant strig by its top berries when the lowest ones ripen days later
- Expecting to eat them out of hand. Redcurrants are sharp by design and nobody should pretend otherwise
Varieties worth knowing
Farms post the variety at the gate. This is what the names mean.
Redcurrant
Translucent, sharp, and beautiful on the strig. For jelly, sauce and anything that needs acid.
Blackcurrant
Muskier and deeper, high in pectin and vitamin C, and the basis of cassis. Ripens from the top of the strig downward.
Whitecurrant
A redcurrant without the pigment. Milder and sweeter, and the closest a currant gets to a snacking berry.
Jostaberry
A blackcurrant crossed with a gooseberry. Thornless, vigorous, and grown on almost no farms anywhere.
Once you are home
Most people pick more than they planned to.
- Freeze on the strig and strip them with a fork while frozen, which is far easier than doing it fresh
- Redcurrant jelly needs no added pectin at all and sets reliably, which makes it a good first preserve
- Cassis is straightforward: blackcurrants, sugar and spirit, then wait
- A summer pudding is the traditional use for a mixed red and blackcurrant pick
Where you can pick currants
8 farms across 5 regions, earliest season first. Every date came from the farm's own words.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
June to July
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
June to August
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
June to August
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
July to August
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
July
