Fruit season part II - blackcurrants and gooseberries

We did not have a huge crop of blackcurrants this year because I pruned them back quite hard last year. The plants look better for the pruning, and the shoots that did crop, cropped heavily.

The gooseberries, in contrast, produced an extraordinary crop. These bushes were in the garden when we moved in, in 1988, and have never really done very well. I don’t know what made the difference this year, but we picked over 4lb of fruit and it is delicious. It always surprises me how gooseberries produce a red juice when cooked. I wonder why that is.