Goosed!

Day 354: The thought of a Thanksgiving turkey gave me just the goose I needed to start making space in my freezer. Goose? As in, "thaw this year's gooseberries and make jam!" The bushes only produced five cups of berries this year because I'd pruned them radically at the end of the 2024 season, but that was enough to make 8 half-pints and one quarter-pint of jam, with a bit left over. I've not been canning much this year. In fact, the last batch of jam I made was in February, and that was the 2024 gooseberry crop. I only have two jars from that session left, but when I went to put these away, I found another row of the 2022 batch hiding behind cranberry-orange marmalade. 2022 is still good (jam keeps well), but I'll eat it up first before getting started on these. That's my two favourites: gooseberry in the #1 spot, cranberry-orange marmalade in #2. Both of them are a lot of work, gooseberry in picking season because each berry has to be topped, tailed and cut in two before freezing, while cranberry-orange marmalade requires a lot of prep work on canning day. Still, those aren't things you're going to find in any store and, in my opinion, are well worth the extra work for as good as they are.

Jam Day

Day 133: I know someone who is going to be very happy to see this. Yes, I've turned my weaving partner Ed into a gooseberry jam addict. Today I made 16 half-pints (and leftovers) from the berries I harvested last June. Since the ripening period spans two weeks or more,  I picked them every day, topping and tailing each batch and freezing them. At the end of the season, I had ten cups ready to process into jam. Of course by that time, hot weather had moved in to stay, and no one likes to toil at the stove when it's hot outside, and in any event, they weren't going anywhere. Winter is a good time for this chore! As usual, I got up long before the sun and had the first five cups on the hob by 7 AM. I was done with both batches by 9:30. I also found some of last year's rhubarb in the freezer, so later today, I'll make some rhubarb bread to get a head start on spring.

Jam Smarts

Day 16: Let us assume for the moment that you have the great good fortune to have gooseberries available to you. You will need four cups of them, topped, tailed and cut in half. Add a small amount of water (not enough to cover them, but close) and bring to a good boil. Cook for 15 minutes to soften the skins. Be sure you have sterilized jars and lids ready to go. Add 7.5 cups of sugar plus about two teaspoons of butter (to prevent foaming). Bring to a hard boil and maintain it for three minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in one packet of Certo liquid pectin. Return to the stove and boil for one minute. Take the pan off the stove so that the jam can cool down before jarring up. Stir frequently for ten minutes to prevent floating fruit. Decant the jam into jars, seal and process in a hot-water bath for 10 minutes (half-pints). The result will be 8-9 jars of what is easily my very favourite jam of all time. Gooseberries, my friends, are a priceless commodity, seldom grown these days because they take so much work to prepare. Voice of experience here, I got some "jam smarts" this summer, preparing small amounts every day as they ripened, then putting them in the freezer for processing into jam during cooler weather. Nine cups of gooseberries yielded 18 half-pints of jam. I'm set for winter!

Worth Every Prickle

Day 362: Gooseberries are not commonly seen in stores these days, nor at roadside stands. Few people grow them even for home use in pies or as jam. Given my fondness for gooseberry jam, it's hard for me to imagine that a few prickles would be a major deterrent, but on the other hand, they require a lot of meticulous preparation before they're serviceable. In the jargon of gooseberry cultivation, the process is known as "topping and tailing." Using a sharp knife, both the stem and blossom ends must be trimmed from each berry individually, a time-consuming but not altogether unpleasant task if you occupy yourself with thinking of the tart/sweet taste of the jam on a future muffin. Their general unavailability led me to plant a couple of bushes several years ago, but they did not do well in the location I chose. I decided to try Alternate Plan B: purchase new ones and bed them in huge flower pots in the Berry Pen where my blueberries flourish. Then, in an attempt to make the best of a bad deal, I also moved the old plants to the Berry Pen. The relocation and new plantings were successful and I harvested a pound and a half of tangy gooseberries this last summer. Concurrently, I planted two red-currant bushes and got enough fruit this year to make a quarter-cup of juice which I added to the gooseberries, turning the whole lot into six half-pints of one of my favourite bread-spreads. That said, potential gooseberry farmers should be aware that the plants are armed and dangerous, but to my way of thinking, worth every prickle for the yield.