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How to pick gooseberries
3 min read
The thorniest thing you can pick in America, and the only fruit here worth picking twice in one season for two completely different reasons.
3
farms
3
regions
June to August
picked
When you can pick gooseberries
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
Wear long sleeves and take the fruit from underneath. The berries hang below the branch and the thorns sit above them, so a hand coming down from the top gets caught every time
- 2
Green and hard is not unripe, it is the cooking stage. Firm green gooseberries in June are what you want for pies, crumbles and anything with sugar in it
- 3
Left another three or four weeks the same bush gives you dessert fruit: the berries blush red, amber or white depending on variety, soften, and turn sweet enough to eat standing there
- 4
Roll the berry between finger and thumb rather than tugging. A ripe one comes away with the little tail still attached, which is normal and pinches off at home
- 5
Top and tail later, not in the field. Snipping the tuft and the stalk off several pounds of fruit is a kitchen-table job with scissors and a radio
What people get wrong
Every one of these is common enough to be worth naming.
- Reaching down into the bush from above, which is how the thorns get you. The berries hang below the branch
- Assuming green means unripe, when green and hard is exactly the cooking stage
- Topping and tailing in the field, which is a slow job best done at a kitchen table
- Tugging rather than rolling the berry off, which strips leaves and next year's wood
Varieties worth knowing
Farms post the variety at the gate. This is what the names mean.
Invicta
A heavy green cooking variety, and thorny. The standard for pies and fools.
Hinnonmaki Red
Ripens to a deep red and is genuinely sweet enough to eat raw, which surprises people.
Captivator
Nearly thornless and reddish, bred to be picked by people who resent gooseberry bushes.
Poorman
An American variety, red, sweet and reliable, and the one most often planted on u-pick farms here.
Once you are home
Most people pick more than they planned to.
- Freeze them whole with no preparation at all, no topping and no tailing, which is unique among the fruit here
- Gooseberry and elderflower is the pairing worth knowing and the season overlaps exactly
- A fool is the simplest good use: cook, sweeten, cool, fold through whipped cream
- The high pectin means jam sets easily and needs nothing added
Where you can pick gooseberries
3 farms across 3 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 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
June to August
