The US War on Currants and Gooseberries

My great grandmother had gooseberry bushes along her back fence and used to laugh and say “don’t let the police see” and i never understood why she said that until now

I'm a British person living in the USA for many years. I discovered the lack of blackcurrant products here long ago. Now I shop at a local international supermarket that stocks goods from Eastern Europe. I'm able to buy blackcurrant soft drinks, juices, cakes, candy, jams, tea and even jars of the berries. The products come from countries like Poland and Slovenia. There is nothing that compares to the wonderful flavor of blackcurrants.

As a wine professional, the flavors of "gooseberry" and "black currant" are often used to describe the flavor profile in certain wines. Now I understand why many of my customers have no idea what I'm talking about. I've had both these fruits in their raw, fresh form, as well as dried black currants, and I like their flavor--and they are flavors that are VERY memorable because they are rather intense. But I never realized that so many people had never tasted these berries in the USA, or why they are so hard to find in grocery stores. Thanks for this informative video!

WHen I was a kid my great grandma had a hidden gooseberry plant. I hated going to her house and the only benefit I saw was attacking that gooseberry bush and eating every available berry. I was addicted as a kid. I would rather eat gooseberries than strawberries. I haven't had one in about 30 years. I miss them 😥

I live in New England. The native barberry was also the subject of an eradication program because it is an intermediate host of the fungus "wheat rust". I know where some 'bushes' of native barberry can still be found here. I knew gooseberries where rare. Over 30 years ago I was slogging through a deep forest here and found a single large white gooseberry in the notch of a pine tree. Since I could not find the bush, I assumed it was probably carried there by a bird or rodent. I took it home and placed it on the window sill above my kitchen sink with the intent of trying to germinate the seeds. The next afternoon I came for it, and it was gone... My girlfriend had thrown it into the trash thinking it was a peeled grape. Our old dog liked peeled grapes, and we would treat her with them. The trash had been picked up that morning. It still bothers me, as you can probably surmise, since I am commenting about it 30 years later.

I can’t imagine not having currents and gooseberries available. Here in Norway, everybody used to have blackcurrants, red currants and gooseberries in their garden, and a lot of people still do. I have them.

My dad loved gooseberry pie. We'd go down in the woods by the river to pick them while battling hoards of vicious mosquitoes ! It was always worth it to see him so happy.

Red currants were a garden stable in Finland because they don't mind a cold summer and the bushes required no attening at all. Also the crop riped all the same time and was easy to gather. I was raised with red currant juice, red currant kissel and red currant pie. Red currants are very tart and need sugar to taste sweeter, and they were generally valued lower than berries like strawberry or rasberry. Currently in Europe they are respected ingredient for desserts and smoothies, while American berries like cranberry.

My mom immigrated from Czechoslovakia in 1984, so I got raised with red currants and gooseberries in the back yard; it always struck me as strange that no one else in Pittsburgh seemed to have or know of currants, and the only local place that sold anything currant-related was the Polish store. The USA is missing out, seriously... black currants are delicious, especially as a drink, and red currants are one of the tastiest snacks ever when fresh, and make such an incredible jam!

In about 1970, one of the best days of my life was spent picking contraband red currants with my best friend. The bushes were hidden behind a neighbor’s house, and were secretly known to be the only surviving currants in our rural area, which had a vital timber industry. We picked the currants, went back to my friend’s house, and my friend and her mom taught me how to make jam and jelly, and then we made red currant jelly roll with the fresh jelly. It took all day, and is still a highlight in my memories. And my mom, born in 1921, was thrilled when I brought home my share of the currant jam and jelly, which she had missed for many decades. I was told that the currant bushes were made illegal and removed because of a blight in the currants, but the risk to the pines was not mentioned. Thank you for this remarkable story, and for setting the record straight on my Northwest Connecticut memories. 🌿🌲🦋

I've often wondered why currents & gooseberries are so rare and expensive here in the US but, when reading books written in the UK the fruits seem common. Now I know! Thanks.

I'm Russian, from Moscow, and I have a small summer house with a garden. There have always been gooseberries and red and black currants here, grown for berries (obviously), but also ashberies and viburnums, because they bloom beautifully in spring and wild birds eat there berries in winter.

My grandmother was a gooseberry pie fiend into her early 100s. She looked forward to the late summer gooseberry harvest as children anticipate Christmas. Her garden grew only enough for a paltry 1/2 dozen or so pies. In early September with single purpose focused eyes under bushy intense black eye brows matching her high thick still black hair, she would back that giant LTD out of the tiny garage, peak over the steering wheel, apply a mandatory death grip, turn toward Western Illinois and floor the accelerator at 45 mph, headed 90+ years earlier into her childhood. 16 hours later she returned to the upper lakes on the Illinois River, victorious with bags of gooseberrys to supply her to March or April, if she stretched them. Burried in the heaps of gooseberrys always was a small bag of black currants for my special pie. I am the only one who likes black currant. It was my bribe to help her unload, make pies and help freeze them. (Making pies with her and listening to her stories for the 20th time NEVER needed a bribe. She was unique.)

In Eastern Europe (at least Ukraine, Belarus and Russia) those berries are highly valued for their taste. I'd say they are most common berries I've eaten as an eastern european. My grandfather had bushes of them growing in his garden, along with plum trees, raspberries, cherry trees and sea ​​​​buckthorn. The smell and taste of black, red and white currants are so bright and special to me 💜

Before my grandfather passed, I'd encountered gooseberries at a farmer's market here in Iowa, and made a gooseberry crumble. It tastes a lot like rhubarb to me. I sent some back to him with my sister, and she said he got a tear in his eye, remembering how his mother used to bake gooseberry pies when he was a kid. I'd fallen for gooseberries and blackcurrants at the moment of first tasting, and it still seems insane to me that it's not a more known flavor.

In Poland you could find all three in virtually each garden, they are still very popular😊. If you boil them (in water) and cool down, the drink (called kompot) tastes divine, especially in summer, but could be also drink warm or hot. Also, imagine the cheescake (fluffy one, without baking) layered at the top with a gelly-o made with black/red currants/gooseberries and juice... And in the winter a cake with a blackcurrant jam and/or blackcurrants dried raisin-style🤤... And do not forget about blackcurrant ice cream!

I remember finding a wild gooseberry bush on our large property as a kid and bringing it to my mother to ID it because I had never seen anything like it. She knew what it was, she was a plant encyclopedia. 40 years later, I own hundreds of currants and gooseberries. I planted them after the ban was lifted and after I spent time in Denmark where I enjoyed eating them.

Growing up in Illinois, and now working in Wyoming -- both of which have a ton of wild gooseberries and currants -- this came as a bit of a shock when I first heard of it.

I grew up in upstate Pennsylvania and our neighbor had red and white currant bushes. We would pick them, eat them off the plant, and sometimes make currant jelly. I had no idea that this was so unusual until now! A few years ago I thought about buying some currant plants to grow in my yard and thought it was odd that they were so difficult to find! They were so delicious and tart.

I'm in Canada and have green and pink gooseberries, & white, red and black currants growing in my front yard. They are by far the easiest fruit I've ever grown, they require no maintenance other than occasional pruning, no watering and yet they produce a crazy amount of berries each year that no animal seems interested in at all. I make the currants into syrups and either eat the gooseberries raw or make baked desserts out of them.