The US War on Currants and Gooseberries

[@TheRinzler2]

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

[@gelflingfay]

It definitely depends on the state you are in too.

[@lauraesposito8225]

Mine did that with poppies. 😂

[@dia9491]

My grandmother did too but she never said anything about the police. But it would explain why her bushes were somewhat hidden at the back of her garden bed.

[@xheralt]

I never even knew that the bushes had ever been targeted until today!

[@marquisdelafayette1929]

Yet another freedom taken away, slowly but surely. But done so slow you don’t notice … like the crab boiled to death. I had gooseberry gelato and it was absolutely the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Tart, hint of sweetness…. And all currants are delicious.

[@golden.lights.twinkle2329]

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.

[@katryanaorange2092]

You should try growing it!!! Very, very rewarding. Every summer I can go outside and eat handfuls.

[@LilyoftheValeyrising]

I’m British as well. I live in Maryland and I love black currants. I’m very sad to not see black currant products available either. There is a farm that grows red currants, they sell out in minutes! My Gran grew gooseberries when I was a kid. I barely remember what they tasted like! It’s hard enough to get a decent cup of tea!

[@myriamickx7969]

I am from continental Europe but, truth be told, I’ve never much liked blackcurrants. My mother used to make a redcurrant jelly that was to die for!

[@dia9491]

I agree with you. It’s really hard to find the black current products here but we don’t have a European grocer nearby. We always get some when we visit a larger town.

[@TimberwolfCY]

I've never had them, but after this video I'm super curious about them. Thanks for bringing up the idea of finding a local European grocery store!

[@stereodreamer23]

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!

[@dp949]

In Czechia and Slovakia (+ probably other central European countries as well) people make traditional currant and gooseberry wines and they are absolutely delicious! The process is often not as sophisticated as making classic wine, but it is kind of a fermented drink with a small alcohol percentage. Sometimes it's similar to wine, sometimes it's sparkling, depending on the used method. The black currant wine is especially delicious. Also, the mix of red and black currant with gooseberry is amazing. In southern parts of Slovakia, people make the same “wine“ made of mulberries or cherries as well.

[@Eva-ez1ks]

I first saw red currants in the grocery store when I was about 22. Having never heard of them before, I got some to try. They were p good

[@tristanbulluss9386]

If you drink you go to hell when you die. You'll get it bad for selling it to other people. Stop now.

[@shelbyclark4620]

We had both growing up in PA. Might've been remnants from before they were banned. There us nothing like a gooseberry or currant. I love that flavor.

[@MiljaHahto]

Currants are used for wine even in Finland, though not very commonly (although almost any garden has them and black currant juice is a stable here).

[@hubrisnaut]

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.

[@Weedtrooper]

It is common knowledge that grapes are toxic to dogs. You might want to research the things you feed to your dogs

[@hubrisnaut]

​@@Weedtrooper You are absolutely right. I know more about grape toxicity now. I believed if a dog ate them in quantity they could have a toxic reaction but didn't realize even small amounts could be a problem. Once in a while, like once a month, my girlfriend would give her a peeled one, because the peel has the high concentration of tartaric acid. The dog wouldn't eat it. She would just take the peeled grape in her mouth and spit it out a few times and acted curious about what she was tasting. She must have felt it was toxic but liked the taste, like we do with certain toxins, like ammonium chloride. That's why my girlfriend thought the lone gooseberry was an old peeled grape kicking around. The dog, Coco, a head strong but loving Chesapeake Bay retriever, made it through life in great shape, we took her to the vet regularly and she lived to be 19. If in Scandinavia, don't eat to much salmiak.

[@heyokaempath5802]

I'm guessing you didn't marry her?

[@hubrisnaut]

@@heyokaempath5802 No, We split up. It wasn't because of the gooseberry.

[@rebeccahicks2392]

​@@Weedtrooper It wasn't common knowledge 30 years ago, though it was probably a good idea to mention it to get the info out there.

[@Denise11Schultz]

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. 🌿🌲🦋

[@rachelwickart275]

You REBEL, you!! LOL HOw wonderful that we share similar memories of a wonderful fruit, and can pass along the information to others. 😄

[@john2g1]

I'm glad to see a sensible conversation about the fruit... Most popular chats are insane right now. Anyway how difficult is it to petition the Department of Agriculture to fund a study to research which states can safely cultivate currants and gooseberries? America is big enough to have a little bit of everything.

[@donniegombel]

​@@john2g1the robber barons will not allow it. It's all controlled through the United Nations. America along with Panama became Full Member STATES in Aug. 1945.

[@aps7777]

@@john2g1 not that easy bro. where you live? obviously not in the US

[@john2g1]

@@aps7777 I live in the US and it is that easy. Ask Ajit Pai what happened when he tried to eliminate net neutrality. As average US citizens we have the least amount of influence on the Judicial branch, limited influence on the Legislative branch and collective power to influence the Executive branch. Side note all of the US Departments, Bureaus and Agencies are the Executive branch. The Executive limited to just the office of the President.

[@lauriedreier5492]

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.

[@xostler]

Now that’s a precious memory if I’ve ever seen one.

[@terryt.1643]

I made many gooseberry pies when I was first married then our friend died and the property he grew them on was sold. Never had a gooseberry source again until I bought a plant last year. Waiting for a good harvest to make a pie again after forty years.

[@voloshanca]

Please share the recipe

[@angelairidescenceartglass6289]

Used to make them for my granddad. He had gooseberry bushes in his back garden.

[@littleme3597]

@@voloshanca Use any tart cherry recipe, or rhubarb.

[@DouglasJenkins]

My grandmother, who came from Germany, had a few gooseberry bushes along her garden fence. I can remember picking, eating and enjoying their taste in the late 50's.

[@germansnowman]

We had gooseberry bushes in our garden in East Germany. A gooseberry tart with a vanilla custard layer and merengue on top is absolutely delicious.

[@feldgeist2637]

I got them all in my garden - gooseberries, black white and red currants and one jostaberry shrub black currants have the strangest taste of them all but have also become my favorite ones .......the leaves of black currants make a very aromatic tea.... Jostaberry btw is a combination of the german names for currants (Johannisbeere/John's-berry.....they usually begin to ripen around StJohn's Day (24th of June)) and gooseberries(Stachelbeere/Spikeberry)

[@babboon5764]

Gooseberries make a pretty wonderful pie, though can be a bit tart. (Varieties differ). I suppose a mix with sweet apple slices - or just custard or ice cream can sort it for those who prefer something a tad less sharp.

[@meedwards5]

My father planted gooseberries and currants on our property in Virginia in the early 1970s. Quite delicious!

[@zachmiller9175]

My great grandparents brought gooseberries as well as some rose bushes from Germany, descendants of both are still growing in the garden of my grandparents house, the gooseberries are extremely tasty.

[@HybridMiranda]

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!

[@Veellinn]

Additionally, white ones are best raw, sweetest of them all.

[@xostler]

Not every place is the same though either. I almost bought some black currants from Home Depot in Missouri. Not sure if other states are like that but there’s some populations, especially older, that know if currants. If you find the right farmers market someone will have some currant product there. I’ve also seen jams for sale in Idaho.

[@freshname]

That jam is to die for!

[@rjbradlow]

yeah and we are the only country to poison the population with flouride and chlorine combined in all water supplies... Get rid of the healthy disease fighting berries in favor of inedible wood and polute the water with toxins. Coincidence?

[@rjbradlow]

The Great Culling: Our Water kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmilonmqrqiFgMU

[@Emmuzka]

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.

[@mykolatkachuk7770]

In Sweden they eat a lot of Lingon (so in Finland must be). I believe it competes with red currants. Its easy to pick in forests and is even less tart. I could make a confiture with less than quater sugar to berries in weight. Love cultivated raspberries, both red and black. Have them plenty in my parents garden in Ukraine.

[@Koreviking]

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.

[@BlackSeranna]

Well, those of us who grew up with grandparents who grew currants and gooseberries now grow our own. I love them, but not many people have heard of them besides, maybe my children and my family.

[@JamesOliverLindsey]

A couple people have them here in the states. My parents did in oregon. I think quite a few hippies in oregon or Washington have them

[@cholst1]

Yeah we had gooseberries, black, red and white currants in my garden growing up.

[@stickinthemud23]

As a child I would have FAR preferred currents and gooseberries at Christmas to the Rommegrot and Lutefisk that was sometimes on offer.

[@i8764theKevassitant]

My grandpa was norweigen, our last name Brandvold and he grew currants and Buffalo berries and made me proud of the heritage he cared so deeply about. I miss him so much it's hard to think about.

[@inaanjakossowska6990]

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!

[@squelchtone]

Polski living in America here... Growing up in Western Massachusetts, we had green gooseberries (agrest) growing in the back yard. We didn't plant them, they were already there before we moved there. It was such a treat to pick and eat them!

[@macmac2584]

Greetings from Poland Anja. We have red currants, black currant, and gooseberry bushes in our yard. They are indeed delicious. Especially the gooseberries.

[@GariFFUSA]

Компот 😂

[@ianmackenzie686]

Wow I haven't had kompot in a long time! Time to make some, thanks!

[@frufruJ]

Czech here; in addition to all these, we make currant wine 😇

[@joshstrattn]

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 😥

[@riaagarwal6840]

Why did you hate going?

[@silly_sheep09]

@@riaagarwal6840grandma obv

[@vincestar4840]

@@riaagarwal6840Funny uncle?

[@poloska9471]

@@riaagarwal6840for many children being around the very old is uncomfortable because it’s like a touch of reality of what life looks like, it feels uncomfortable and foreign - the parents are usually modern, young, don’t smell like old people, have a different sound and mannerisms, so the child is accustomed to a very young feeling in their surroundings but when they go to someone like great grandmother who may be up to 100 years old in some cases, they get this sort of almost culture shock (kind of how it feels like). Can’t really put it into words but you get the point… the child understand the person is their family but they don’t have an emotional comprehension of the person’s closeness to them or may feel as if they are being smothered or it’s just weird ya know? Not always but for some it’s this way. Can also be because the child would rather spend the time at home or with friends doing something fun rather than sitting around in a rather boring older style interior of grandparents house. Usually it’s fun for the kid if the grandparents have something entertaining for the child… on my father’s side, I didn’t enjoy the majority of the experience except for this hand water pump from a well pipe near the enterance where they would get water so I would always volunteer to pump out the sandy water to get it clear and then would fill jugs of water for a couple hours to help and then would get all the gooseberries and other berries in the garden and then would eat dinner which was hit or miss sometimes to my tastes but always a generally okay time, sometimes more fun than others… it was more fun if my parents were showing me around rather than me having to interact with grandparents directly because it felt a little awkward because I felt as if I needed to be very appreciative despite feeling like an ordinary kid who wants to just run around and be a rascal. On my mothers side it was the opposite way, I had a ton of fun but that is because they almost raised me 50% of the time so I was very used to them and comfortable around them, plus they had a ton of fun with me and for some reason I felt very happy around them… on my dad’s side I only saw them sparingly when we were on our way home from my mom’s grandparents summer house and would swing by to just say hi for a couple hours, I never spent a day alone with them whereas I’d spend all summer with my mom’s parents. You get the point… 🤷‍♂️

[@an0nym00se4]

Come to russia or the baltics, we have those.

[@marcmoretti2502]

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.

[@trenthawkins]

Also Canadian; My family planted a few golden currant bushes ten years ago... only two of them took (on the south side of the house where it gets the most sun in summer and also extra water from the roof runoff). They now measure (roughly) 1.5m^3, and I get 3-4 cups of berries every summer. And, yeah - the local animals don't seem to care for them. Unlike the saskatoon bushes, where the berries are GONE if you do not pick them within 1-2 days of ripening.

[@sarahprice659]

We have a dreadful time trying to get anything to grow on our property. I am going to be looking into these 🤨

[@krystofk.2279]

@@sarahprice659 we have a bush of green goose berries here in central Europe. It really takes 0 maintenance, it's suited even for hills with low quality soil and it's the most cold resistant fruit bush I've seen in my life and the taste is so pleasant. Btw it's called Angrešt (Angresht) in my language :D

[@sakesaurus]

Take the leaves and brew them like a tea. Add some mint. It's just delicious.

[@sandorfintor]

blessings!!!

[@charleshettrick2408]

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.)

[@gilesclone]

My grandmother also made an awesome gooseberry pie. She lived in central Missouri. Last time I had a piece was in the 1980s. Nobody seems to make them anymore.

[@TheIrishAmish]

Exquisite memory.

[@katiekane5247]

What a wonderful memory!

[@lindseyroselights2306]

Sounds like a real 🍑!! I miss her and idk her, but I think I do you.. in my own grandmother

[@midwestribeye7820]

I loved this story!❤

[@meggert2360]

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.

[@noname-wo9yy]

They are everywhere in the uk growing in waste land. I normally pick slow berries for gin from the side of rural roads

[@clairedahl1708]

At least in Minnesota for sure and I'm pretty sure in other states as well!

[@lissakaye610]

I used to pick gooseberries in my grandmas garden as a kid and always wondered why I’ve never seen them anywhere else.

[@theoremus]

Peter Rabbit ate goose berries.

[@Atis602]

We had a red current bush in our Long Island, NY back yard back in the 1970's, I knew it was uncommon only because I knew my dad went through a lot of trouble finding one to plant. We always enjoyed eating them directly off the bush. My friends were always afraid to have them because not knowing what they were they were sure they must be poisonous. :) It was special to my dad because having been a WW2 refuge of Latvia the bush reminded him of home.

[@zZirgs]

I grew up and live in Latvia, and can confirm that in my childhood current berries was a common snack in summer. :D

[@iamthereforeistrive9392]

As they have been in Russia.

[@dumvivimus]

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.

[@Whyteroze28]

Hundreds! We need someone who's willing to be a Johnny Appleseed and reseed these all over the US! Not you personally, of course, but it would be nice to have someone to do it.

[@mariad.b.6344]

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.

[@michaell8269]

After my family moved to Pennsylvania in 2000, my mom, an avid gardener, planted red currants, white currants, and gooseberries. Never knew about this history, but it explains why those flavors are quite rare in American food products.

[@aloysiusdevanderabercrombi470]

Wild gooseberries are not rare and are of better flavor than domestic gooseberries.

[@HosCreates]

Does she still grow them? Can you sell the seed?

[@UtubeCommentersRdumb]

As an avid gardener in the eastern US with a focus on edible landscaping and native plants I tell this story at least once a month. Some nurseries still won’t ship currants to certain states.

[@froggydoodle808]

Are you growing them? What state are you in? I'm wondering how far south they will grow...

[@emilyelizabeth8757]

I would love to grow some. I’m in Maine but have never seen any for sale.

[@UtubeCommentersRdumb]

@@froggydoodle808 In NC, and they grow happily here.

[@jcarry5214]

​@@emilyelizabeth8757 currants are banned since they are a carrier of fungi that annihilates wild blueberries. That may be mentioned in the video, I didn't get through it 100 percent. I didn't know about the blister rust though. Between the white pines and the blueberries being at risk let's just say we can live without these fruits in Maine, yeah?

[@brucehalleran1149]

​@@emilyelizabeth8757Actually knew this history from my mother so my wife and I decided in 2k to not add currents to our edible landscape. Our white pines are descended from a glorious hundred foot example that lived near Lake Winola PA until a new owner built a bigger deck. I won't live to see it but I want them to have a chance to show. I will make do with dried currents in my Welsh cookies.

[@vsb101]

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 💜

[@iz6566]

Ah and tea with black currant leaves 💓

[@sakesaurus]

​@@iz6566and mint

[@filin_-vn4fj]

grandpa's gooseberries always hit different

[@vsb101]

@@filin_-vn4fj you filthy animal 😘

[@werpu12]

They are to the north what citrus fruits are to the south! Great also with meat!

[@rachelwickart275]

My grandmother had red currant bushes in her garden for decades. Part of our summer involved visiting the grandparents and "helping" in the garden, which mostly meant eating the fresh ripe berries, with grandma indulgently laughing at our stained hands and hosing us down afterward. When hubby and I got a house, one of the first things I planted was a tiny gooseberry bush (extremely thorny!) appropriated from an old railroad right of way that was going to be demolished, along with black raspberry plants from the same area. These plants have supplied us with fruit each summer, no matter how hot, dry, or wet, for nearly 16 years. Now our grandkids are learning about the deliciousness of these fruits. Sadly, however, another type of berry also seems to be on the decline: boysenberry. We cannot even find the jelly in local grocery stores anymore. Smuckers used to make it, but no longer, and it's nearly impossible to find the plants at local nurseries.

[@AUniqueHandleName444]

Boysenberry is amazing. It's still a big thing in Oregon, especially in yogurts and local pies.

[@brodiwheeler7583]

Invented by Mr. & Mrs. Knott… Ala Knott’s Berry Farm in SoCal.

[@sterlingarcher241]

Boysenberry yogurt used to be the best flavor and it’s now nearly impossible to find.

[@Jeni-ow1kl]

YES;(! WTH happened to all of the Boysenberries?!??;((

[@myserenityhomestead]

Isons Nursery carries all these berries for sale.

[@arleydial1124]

I grew up in New Mexico. My grandparents cultivated black currants. Currant pie was my favorite. I didn’t realize how lucky I was. Great video!

[@createa.googleaccount713]

Me too, in Northern NM, when can the berries be harvested? I'm a Wild Forager 🌱🌿🫐 Gracias/ Thanks

[@ancientromewithamy]

This video made me want some so bad. I had them when studying in Germany, because they're everywhere. Just go into a shop and you'll find black currant juice rather than orange juice! I bought a cutting of one with roots and i'm impatiently waiting to see if I can get some to grow now!

[@Hnry-Tudor]

Thank you for posting this episode, Lance. My father grew up in western Wisconsin in the early 1900s. Many of the farm families in that area were immigrants from the UK and other parts of western Europe. They likely harvested currants and goosberries growing wild as well as planting some of those bushes in their gardens to supply fruit for familiar jellies and pies. So this eradication program was very noteworthy and unwelcome to the residents of that area.

[@paranoidrodent]

They never quite disappeared here in Canada but aren’t really a commercial crop. Once you mentioned the French name, I realized that you meant the berry bushes that were very common in my extended family’s yards (and jam cupboards) in Quebec. Blackcurrant tea and biscuits with blackcurrants have been favourites of mine for ages. Presumably the British and French influences here kept the flavour from disappearing.

[@Mad_Catter_]

They never disappeared in the US either, this video is a farse trying to conflate a ban on trade with prohibition of possession.

[@amyg4549]

Yes, I’m from northern Canada and Gooseberries are as plentiful here as anywhere else that I’ve seen them in this country.

[@Levacque]

Oh cool! My parents were originally French- and English-speaking from different parts of Ontario and it's great to hear that currants are also common in the French subcultures. I know for sure they are well-loved amongst British descendants because my mom has currant bushes she transplanted from her grandfather's farm, and those were likely descended from plants brought with his family from England.

[@Alfred-Neuman]

I live in Quebec (French Canadian) and when I was 10-12 yo our neighbors had a bush with white berries that looked like this. I'm pretty sure it was exactly this, I just remember it tasted sour with a nice flavor. Never seen those anywhere ever again.

[@groaningmole4338]

There are a couple of Canadian breweries that produce blackcurrant flavoured beer. Very tasty.

[@Hannah-yf2yr]

Through this video and some googling I realised that Australia sells both the US and UK skittles depending on where you buy them, and I genuinely never noticed how the purple ones taste different sometimes. I prefer the blackcurrent, but both are good. I'm more perturbed that my brain was just fine with the randomly switching purples and never flagged it with me

[@Metalkatt]

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.

[@jnoble9032]

Do you remember what market in Iowa you purchased them? Yum.

[@Metalkatt]

@@jnoble9032 It was in Ames. It was one of those seasonal things without a fixed store.

[@TheRunningLeopard]

Was looking for a comment because I just ran into/purchased gooseberries after never seeing them before, and I live in Iowa. The taste initially hits me as being similar to the berry flavor from Captain Crunch, before turning a bit more sour.

[@TheRunningLeopard]

@@MetalkattNot to add an additional comment but no joke, also got my gooseberries in Ames. Wheatfield is the one selling them but I’m not sure how long they will be in stock.

[@Metalkatt]

@@TheRunningLeopard WHEATFIELD, that was it!! It's been so long since I was up there, I'd forgotten.

[@operator1192]

They grown naturally where I live in ND/MN and didn’t know they were edible until I did some research and found out that they were long banned in the US which intrigued me even more. Now my fruit garden has over 20 varieties of black, red, white, and pink currants, jostaberries, and gooseberries. I love the flavor and how easy they are to grow even in the harsh subzero winters of ND/MN

[@SivaExperiment]

i want. 🥲

[@ecouturehandmades5166]

We had them in our garden in MPLS, MN under the irrigation line with asparagus. Dad liked them, but there was never enough to do anything with them. Until I found a patch in the woods, likely spread by birds. I made currant jelly and not knowing that currant jelly NEVER sets up (a better syrup!), I kept adding sugar. The batch became a red brick. Sweet, sticky, but inedible.

[@p0tmuffin69]

@operator1192 did you have to get a permit to grow them?

[@operator1192]

@@p0tmuffin69 no we can buy, grow, and propagate them freely now

[@operator1192]

@@ecouturehandmades5166 oh haha that’s wild, what a story haha. I hate to say but I probably would have done the same thing. I’m planning on making preserves or jam with them but I guess I’ll be adding pectin haha

[@shadowprince4482]

I'm a forester in the western US and yeah gooseberry is sorta rare to see. I never knew until now that it was associated with white pine blister rust. I've even been on work details trying to combat blister rust but never knew it had to do with gooseberry. I always love learning something new.

[@carolroyer5369]

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.

[@StellaTZH]

Here in Germany black currant is also made into a popular drink. It’s the juice mixed with sparkling water, super refreshing. My grandmother who was originally from Silesia always gave us red currant berries in milk and sprinkled with sugar as a snack.

[@sincerely-b]

I'm in Quebec, Canada and would serve the same to my children but with blueberries and raspberries and replace sugar with a drizzle of maple syrup. It was their favorite snack.

[@rachaelhoffman-dachelet2763]

That was super interesting. When I was a kid in the 70s we had gooseberries in our yard, but we moved away when I was about ten. I was an exchange student in Germany where we ate a LOT of red currants, and my host mother and I bonded over our mutual love of gooseberries. I’ve always wondered why there were no red currants here in the U.S. thanks for telling me why. I’ve often considered planting gooseberries, but they spread very aggressively and I don’t have a good spot to contain them.

[@TheAkumaChan]

Exactly, the way they spread made me wonder why no one was planting them. You literally have to do nothing. Just drop a few berries in the grass, permanent food growing in the upcoming years.

[@evelinharmannfan7191]

You can contain them by growing them in a large container, the size about the radius of the bush.

[@nagi603]

European here: in my childhood, we had red currant and goosberry, but grafted onto some very thin, roughly meter tall woody stalks that thus never spread. They needed support though, as the weight of the fruits would bend the whole mini-trees to the ground, risking breaking it in half.

[@peggysue1725]

I find this strange - I've never seen gooseberry bushes spreading out too much - they def don't do that where I live, I grew up with them.

[@pekkahollola7646]

​@@peggysue1725 I think she is talking about Blackcurrant/Redcurrant. I live in Europe and Gooseberry(green and dark violet variety) bushes look to me like sterile. Gooseberry is hard to spread without human help. But Blackcurrant/Redcurrant spreads like maple trees.

[@typacsk]

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.

[@Pootieprincess]

My husband is from Wyoming. I didn’t know what a currants or gooseberry’s were until last year.

[@kraneiathedancingdryad6333]

They're all over the place here in SD. If you know what you're looking for you can collect quite a few to make your own syrup and jelly.

[@OriginalGlorfindel]

I came up from FL, where wild muscadine grapes grow everywhere. I could eat as many as I liked, plus tons of tart blackberries. Now that I'm here I will have to find and try these treasures. My family came from Scandinavian roots, I always wanted to try cloudberries as well.

[@typacsk]

@@OriginalGlorfindel Just keep your head on a swivel XD My ex and I found a patch of them at Yellowstone, and started getting a snack... and then I found fresh bear tracks. A couple years later, I interrupted a grizzly that was having breakfast in a big thicket of buffaloberry.

[@OriginalGlorfindel]

@@typacsk Oh yeah, the black bear back home loved the wild grapes and blackberry thickets. Gotta keep my head on a swivel out here, no forests to hide them, but the bear and cats are much bigger here! I've seen panther back home in swamps, and one of the mountain lions here already. Just never run across bear in either place. We had coyotes and red wolves... I expect y'all's will be larger here as well.

[@erc.erc.erc.]

This was great. My first History Guy episode. Im in the US and started a garden a few years ago and included currents and gooseberries. I’ve never had gooseberries to this day… still waiting on my first crop as the plant matures, and I had no idea of it’s history. But it explains why my Scottish neighbor was so thrilled to see them in our garden.

[@ryangrimm9305]

My grandmother had a 'secret' group of red currant bushes on her property, and she eventually told me they were 'illegal' in Michigan. There was virtually no commercial woodlots for white pine in her area, so she and other farmers had no problems growing the berries. Of late I've had some difficulty in getting dried red currants for baking, due to the shipping disruptions from Covid, so when I see them, I buy several boxes, sometimes clearing out the shelf. Always use them in scones and English TEA BRACK, a dense fruit loaf, NOT to be confused with fruit cake (Horrible stuff, fruit cake).

[@aimee-lynndonovan6077]

The zest needs to eliminated from the recipe for fruit cake! There are plenty of English fruit cakes that can be tried.😁

[@michaell8269]

Instead of candied fruit, use dried fruit. Fruitcake can be quite good!

[@eldermillennial8330]

@@aimee-lynndonovan6077 Is that what turns it into concrete?

[@ryangrimm9305]

@@michaell8269 The Tea Brack I make uses candied orange peel and lemon peel ONLY, and I get that from another baker who makes it herself. All of the dried and candied fruits are soaked in a hot mix of black tea, whiskey and brown sugar, left to cool overnight. Gold raisins Black raisins Zante Currants (they are all I can find locally) The aforementioned candied peels Dried Montmorency cherries Dried apricots (snipped into small pieces), I try to get the Slab Apricots that Trader Joe's has on occasion....when they're in stock, I buy a ton to have on hand. Sometimes I substitute with the mixed raisins I can find at BJ's, for the gold and black raisins.

[@chezmoi42]

@@eldermillennial8330 Fruit cake is concrete for you? Heavens, where are you from? I'm from Washington state, and Mom's recipe was for a light cake with a fresh orange juice syrup poured over the top while it was hot. It was golden, buttery and tender, and I grew up with a taste for candied fruit because of that cake. Our family Christmas tradition was for us kids to make mini-loaves of fruitcake, wrap them in foil and tartan ribbons, and carry them round to the neighbors and people in our village who had no family close by.

[@VB-lc4xz]

Sir, thank you so much for bringing this topic up! Those berries deserve it! They deserve to be known, valued, and appreciated!

[@theo1113miller]

I remember eating goose berry pie made by my grandmother in northern Indiana. It was considered quite a rare treat as most of us kids had never heard of goose berries before. Thank you for filling in a gap in my knowledge of why this wonderfully sour pie was so rare.

[@tmtb80]

I also ate gooseberry pie in Indiana....Monticello. Was my Granddad's favorite!

[@Larsonaut]

I guess it’s an old German receipt. My grandma made every year gooseberry pie for us

[@tomh6183]

You can purchase frozen gooseberries in Shipshewana IN and other places in Amish areas.

[@Imevul]

I used to have black, red, and white currants growing everywhere in the european suburb where I grew up, especially near playgrounds and local parks. Most (if not all) were planted by the organisation that developed the area, for the benefit of people living there. All the neighborhood kids were snacking on those bushes when they were in season. Great and cheap way to improve your community, and get children to naturally get a little more fruit/berry in their diet.

[@sincerely-b]

Every community should have this thought in mind. Sometimes I think of going to public places to seed food LOL

[@donaldstalker5273]

@@sincerely-b Do it , i do ! Good humans have always thought about the next generation . I actually purchased 3 cheery trees and put them straight into my local woods last year , also have planted a few blueberry cuttings every year . It is a drop in the ocean , but if every one done a little bit it would start to show.

[@nancystonephotography7340]

I grew up eating green gooseberries like popcorn. My grandma had bushes in her yard and, in May, many people in our county would go out hunting for gooseberries and morel mushrooms. They could be traded like money and people became territorial when patches were found. When we moved to NE Oregon, the locals called red gooseberries “Marion berries.” Seeing those English currants, I now want some jelly. I used to bring it back from the UK & Ireland.

[@cindyloveland7012]

Marion berries are actually a strain of blackberries developed in a university in Oregon.

[@conniewojahn6445]

@@cindyloveland7012 Thank you for clarifying that. My mother grew those and made jelly out of them. It was delicious. Definitely not gooseberries! I'd say Oregon State University because it is considered an agricultural college with degree programs such as forestry.

[@standdownrobots_ihaveoldglory]

Morels are the same as cash in Montana if you take your haul to a fancy restaurant!

[@voloshanca]

What do you serve gooseberries/ gooseberry jelly with?

[@nancystonephotography7340]

@@voloshanca I don’t like gooseberry jelly, too sweet. Gooseberries off the vine and as a tart pie (1 1/2 cups of sugar instead of 3 cups) are the only ways I’ll eat them.

[@Crosses3]

During the depression,my grandparents had the kids search the woods around their farm for berries to sell in the city door to door. They had goose berries in the woods along with wild black raspberries and mulberries.

[@Kittycatz1415]

Black raspberries and red mulberries are so good

[@mathewdon1490]

I often find forest floor gooseberry but rarely see fruit. Midwest

[@thecraftycreeper3167]

@@mathewdon1490 they need sunlight we found some in the old windbreak and cleared all the underbrush, which gave it some much-needed sunlight and we got a decent amount of fruit on it

[@davea6314]

I'm an American who once lived in Britain for 6 months. I enjoyed black currant while in Britain and have occasionally eaten it here in the USA. There are markets that sell it if you look hard enough...

[@moosifer3321]

Ive tried Cranberry and Blueberry but they don`t come close to my 3rd favourate - Blackcurrants! Similarly, you`re missing out on English Chocolate, Hershey v Bournville. I`D take a Blackcurrant Jam (jelly!) Buttie over a White Pine Sandwich any day! PS I`ll sti l c laim LOGANBERRIES &Raspberries are even Tastier!

[@robertb6889]

My mom always grew black currants in every house we lived in while growing up and she used them in jams/jellies.

[@mydogsareneat]

The "international" section. I kid. But honestly its even hard to come by in Canada. Maybe not as hard, but still hard.

[@VespasianJudea]

@@Ketchuporkatsup Raspberries are highly perishable. They rot rather fast.

[@thealexfiles303]

I've lived in the US my whole life, but I've had black currant quite a few times, but most of those may have been during visits to the UK. I knew some of the history here before, and I know the first time was in the US. I was most surprised that so few Americans have ever had it.

[@Bouboukenka]

My grandmother, in Ohio had a gooseberry bush. Every year we'd pick berries and make several pies with them. I do remember that we seemed to be the only family in the area familiar with this wonderful berry . Later in NE, I found them growing in the wild. When I moved, temporarily to the UK learnt about currants and realized that Americans prize grape juice in place of currant juice. Ribena is a great drink as well.

[@nicolebolick9663]

This is so interesting! I will tell people that I used to stand in my great aunts garden (deep Appalachia, Tennessee) when I was around 5/6 and eat gooseberries until I would get sick. No one else had even heard of them... so I was called crazy. I remember them clearly. Large marble size, a clear light green (almost white) color with lines and a slight blush of pink when they were ready to be DEVOURED. Did I say I loved them? My aunt and uncle died when I was around 12 and their family just sold their dirt floor home and the land that went with it for almost nothing just to get out of it. I wished I was older and could have fought for it. The sunlight pouring through the trees, fresh spring water collecting in a pool at the base of the mountain, the many varieties of flowers and fruits that can't be found anywhere anymore and the peace I felt in that place can never be replicated! I have looked for my own bushes for decades but they just seemed to have disappeared. NOW I KNOW WHY! I need to show this to all who doubted me. I would love to see if I can find someone with the bushes that I can buy so I can grow my own and share their gorgeous flavor with my grandkids! Thank you so much for sharing their history. And making me feel a little less crazy!

[@denlillehowfru]

I am CURRANTLY cultivating a black one in my central California backyard in hope of having the delicious dark berries of my Danish youth. Having black currant marmalade in my house is a must for me…now you have me wanting to grow gooseberries like the ones we use to sneak into the neighbor’s yard to steal and enjoy. Thank you for letting me know the two odd berries of my youth are related to one another. Explains my addiction!

[@mykolatkachuk7770]

I believe you would not encounter much fungi infection in California anyway. Our gooseberries in Ukraine suffer from this type of pest the worst when there is a damp season. Which almost never happens even in Northern California. And black and red currants are even much more resilient/

[@tigertoxins584]

It's kind of incredible he did all of those lines in long takes, you can hear the weird inflection and his voice starting to give out, but he continues. What an interesting lad, so passionate about history.

[@marianneaugenstein6381]

That was fascinating! I have grown up picking currants with my mother from a bush in the back yard. She planted it in 1975 from a cutting of one that belonged to my grandmother next door. We used them for jelly, and I knew it was unusual, but I didn't know why! Our bush is still thriving and I continue to make currant jelly in my mother's honor today.

[@sincerely-b]

I love that the plant lives on! ❤

[@mlbs4803]

My mother and I picked currants and gooseberries on a central Illinois farm in the 1950's. I loved the picking and helping mom squeeze the jelly bags at home to make wonderful currant jelly. She also made some yummy gooseberry pies. But one year we went back to pick and the entire row of bushes was gone. The farmer said he was ordered to take them out. :- ( I still miss those currants and gooseberries some 70 years later.

[@normablake2748]

My Dad was an Air Force soldier stationed in France and Germany. In France we lived off post. Our Landlady had a fruit orchard out back of her house. Along the fence line there were black and red currant bushes as well as gooseberries. Me and my brother would raid the bushes every summer. We loved them. The Landlady made a liquor of the currents called Cassis. She would serve the liquor to her lady friends who came to “tea”. I was the oldest at 6 years old and she would serve me a mixture of mineral water and Cassis, I loved that little concoction, it was our little secret. I had no idea that these fruits caused such trouble in Europe and the United States. Thank you for the fascinating article. Keep doing you❤️

[@eldermillennial8330]

Apparently there have been “Decorative shrub” loopholes for Currant, as they are a beautiful plant. Across the street from my college in Utah, in a public park, was a series of decoratively arranged bushes that I realized in late summer included Currant! Only, everyone was oblivious. When I gathered a large bushel to eat back at the dorm, a lot of my friends were worried I might be eating something toxic! I’d only ever had currant jam before when I was a kid, so that was my first time eating them fresh off the branch; they were SO good. I didn’t need permission, the bushes were just for decoration and the berries left to the birds, what a waste!

[@ribeserythrocarpum918]

Which park was this? I live in Utah and would love to go check it out.

[@eldermillennial8330]

@@ribeserythrocarpum918 Mouth of Provo valley, going up a hill across the street and river from a small community college called “Scenic View Academy”.

[@kathyw.906]

My guess is that these are clove/golden/Crandall currants. I have not ever noticed them to get WPBR. And their fruit is quite mild, like a mild grape. Not the sometimes bracing muskiness of a European black currant.

[@mollyheyer6056]

Berries left to the birds is not waste! They probably need them more than you do.

[@neuswabian9442]

@@mollyheyer6056 As birds can eat a great variety of fruit that humans find toxic, especially North American birds and their native North American fruits. Don't make it about the flying shitters or someone will absolutely seed any place they can with peppercorn for a tasty birdy snack. Them birbs love them peppercorns. I reckon you also love cats, you hypocrite.

[@haystack3149]

Ribena is popular in New Zealand as well. Some years ago, some school students tested the vitamin C level in it, as the TV ads made a big deal of the vitamin C in black currents. There was none in the actual product, so the company that makes it here had to do a big mea culpa and now add vitamin C. Also the Kiwi (Kiwi fruit as it's called here, so as not to be confused with the national bird or people) was called a Chinese Gooseberry when I was a kid. Kiwi is a marketing name.

[@stonefireice6058]

I always wondered, why such wonderful berries were unknown in the US. I grew up with currants and gooseberries, bilberries, lingonberries being always available at the markets in raw or cooked form year around. My dad would make wonderful liquor from black currants. I tried finding seedlings to plant and make my own liquor from black currants, but all MIdwest nurseries had none, explaining the “tabu”. The solution came with the Eastern European market in my town, where Red currants and Gooseberries were available during their growth season, but jams and preserves are there all the time. No liquor though.

[@isaacschmitt4803]

I remember hearing about gooseberries at some point, I dint recall if I were a child or an adult by that point. Then, playing the Witcher all those years ago and then reading the books, Yennifer is described as smelling of "lilac and gooseberries." A few years ago, I finally came accross some gooseberries at my local Midwest grocery store and bought a carton. While I wasn't overly fond of the flavor, I steeped them in a Mason jar with Everclear, as the higher proof an alcohol is, the more flavor it will draw from the fruit. They're still steeping, and my intention is to eventually make a simple syrup infused with lilac to create a "lilac and gooseberries" cocktail.

[@ellen5165]

In mid 50's through mid 70's, in Ohio, my grandmother grew gooseberries, red currants, red raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. She also had several bushes that created rose hips and we also had wild black currants. She made jelly and jams often combining various fruits. We had dozens of black raspberries and blackberries on our property. Loved all those berries.

[@sincerely-b]

It's strange how not many people keep edibles in their yards anymore. My yard sounds a bit like your grandmother's. Food is growing out of every corner LOL

[@juliemcgugan1244]

Some US friends did a semester at my university in the UK and they had never encountered blackcurrant-flavoured anything. They confirmed that they did indeed have a lot of grape-flavoured candy and drinks back home and were completely unfamiliar with the blackcurrant. They also noted that their most common additive to chocolate was peanut butter, although they were intrigued by the orange flavoured chocolate that was my own and my fellow Brit friend's favourite. Never knew why this was, until now! Thanks!

[@patrickd9551]

Currants and Gooseberries also contain a lot of pectin, a gelling agent (for the lack of better words). You need less sugar to stiffen up jams and jellies, so it's one more added health benefit (besides being loaded with vitamin C). I always had one or more of these fruits in my gardens. I loved to pick them in the garden and I loved the sour taste.

[@davidsauls9542]

My late father spent a considerable part of his childhood up a Currant tree in Virginia. In his old age, he would go silent when given currant jam on toast. I miss that smile.

[@LV-426...]

Currants grow on bushes, not on trees.

[@VästerHöger]

Unless he was a squirrel, that is physically impossible

[@davidsauls9542]

@@LV-426... There are both bushes and trees. The tree looks like a small cherry. Sad, that delight in trying to correct rather than understand and learn.

[@davidsauls9542]

@@VästerHöger How about learning from an older person rather than smugly trying to correct them. I have seen the very tree he climbed as a little boy. Yes, there are currant Trees. They are like a small cherry. Google Scholars do miss so much.

[@Koreviking]

@@davidsauls9542 Lol, no. There are no currant trees.

[@JoannaVancouver]

I grew up on gooseberries and red currants in Poland. (Black currants I don't like.) They grew in our garden and were very common in all of Poland. Now I live in Canada and you just can't buy gooseberries or currants here at a regular supermarket. You could occasionally come across them at fancy markets like Granville Island. They're very rare and therefore expensive. I wish they would become popular and commonplace in Canada.

[@voloshanca]

What do you serve them with in Poland?

[@br4insful]

@@voloshanca eat them raw or make a jam. Or pie

[@voloshanca]

@@br4insful and what the jam is served with?

[@nlbhaduri]

I was raised on black currants in the UK and miss their availability now that I live in the US. I hope people here will come to appreciate the absolutely unique flavour of a black currant and allow/encourage the return of the family of currants to US soil. I still get a thrill when I see the bushes in bloom in the springtime (in the UK) and try to bring Ribena bottles back with me when I go abroad….(of note, the original recipe for Ribena has changed from the 1960s version and not in a good way)

[@martinhill486]

We are outside the mail order plant buying window currently but a quick search will yield sources for next spring. I had both black and red and found the black both harder to pick due to the more solitary berry vs the red lake current plus the birds produced dark stains after eating so I remoced those. lost the reds to verticillum and in rebuild mode, first minor crop of red lake due soon. I mix my Heritage rasberry and the red current for a very nice jam- no pectin needed as the currents are loaded with it.

[@beccagee5905]

​@@martinhill486I've never had currants, but when I lived in Germany, my neighbor had Gooseberry bushes. I loved them, and didn't know why we didn't have them in the US.

[@Odood19]

I am one of the few Americans to enjoy the taste of a fresh picked black and red currant. Black is my favorite, and certain varieties are better than others within the black currants. The best varieties are like tart blueberries, with a sort of musty astringency that you can find nowhere else. I'm glad you covered this topic because this is such a tasty fruit that indeed deserves to be remembered.

[@anonomooose]

Honestly kinda jealous lol

[@ancientromewithamy]

Since the ban was lifted though, we can have them now in the US. I bought some from a farm or horticulture store online and look forward to having berries eventually (not this year). Love the taste though!

[@Odood19]

@@ancientromewithamy Out of curiosity, are you planting them in any shade?

[@ancientromewithamy]

@@Odood19 I have them in pots for now until they get a bit bigger, I plan to read some more about them before deciding a permanent spot!

[@ancientromewithamy]

@@Odood19 A friend told me to hurry up and put them in ground so the roots could get established before winter, I put them near the fence near the blueberries which have also done well in the partly sun, part-shade there for many years, crossing my fingers! I got consort type but I am wanting Titania as well, I think. Consort are "reliably self pollinating," but titania have a better yield.

[@Delekhan]

Thanks for the interesting video! Love the history you share with us! I'm an employee with the US Forest Service. The fact they paid people to rip out Ribes species (thus spreading the spores on the underside of the leaves) is amazing to me. I've collected seed from five needle pines from resistant trees "plus trees". The blister rust is decimating some of our rare five needle pines on the west coast. Another case of humans screwing things up in nature! I thought gooseberries and currants were gross when I was a kid. Delicious now! Goldenberry gooseberries, Black currant jam? Yes please!

[@keithweiss7899]

As a kid, growing up in Licking in the Ozarks, my grandma made delicious Gooseberry pies from green berries. They were popular because they are very sour. It took lots of sugar to make an eatable pie. And those Gooseberry bushes required no maintenance and are perennial. They are still there, after 75 years.

[@lukesmusic]

I grew up in the Ozarks too. We also had Gooseberry bushes and and Gooseberry cobbler was my Grandfathers favorite dessert.

[@jeremymcclary3901]

Me too, I was raised at Blanche Mo and gooseberries were literally everywhere.

[@brockreynolds870]

We mix mulberries with ours, you have to add sugar, too... but the mulberries and gooseberries are ripe at the same time, and the mulberries need something tart to go with them.

[@John-ql9pi]

Green ones are the best!😊

[@HotMudrs]

Really the green berries? I'll have to try that. Maybe a thousand unripe berries on the bushes in my yard. Thank you for the info

[@Phalaenopsisify]

Very interesting story! Although gooseberries are common garden bushes here in Sweden you don't find them in supermarkets, you have to grow the bushes yourself or be friends with someone who does. My grandmother used to bake a wonderful gooseberry cake wih a meringue top and when I got my allotment the first thing I did was to plant several gooseberry bushes. As a bonus one of the few plants on my allotment when I took over was a tiny and weak black currant bush which I've nursed back to health. I couldn't imagine life without Ribes.

[@KiwiCatherineJemma]

The reason why some fruits or vegetables are not commonly for sale in shops, is because "they do not transport well" without degrading, or looking bad. So for example, Tomatoes or Strawberries as sold in shops will be varieties which have been bred to transport without bruising or going bad, and still looking nice on the shop shelf. That's why some folks reckon that their old fashioned "home grown" fruits taste better. Those old varieties may have better taste, but not look as perfect and may bruise more easily etc.

[@mdute]

That’s why gooseberries are so precious to me. It’s a childhood summer flavour, that you can only get during the summer. One company in my country now makes sweets with gooseberries coated in chocolate, but the flavour is a bit lost in sugar :)

[@whitneymacdonald4396]

This is great information. There was one little roadside berry stand where I go in the summer run by an elderly couple that sold gooseberries. They were so delicious and were a highlight of my summer. Recently, the couple passed away and I haven't been able to find any. I wondered why no one else grew them. Now I'm even more inspired to find some plants to start growing on my own.

[@horrido666]

If you've ever driven the beautiful scenic route along the north shore of Lake Superior, you no doubt remember passing through Gooseberry Falls. Its hard to miss. WPBR needs to infect both a currant or gooseberry plant and a white pine to complete its life cycle. There are disease resistant varieties out there. I have both gooseberry bushes, and white pine trees on my lot.

[@ravenwolf7128]

I had the resistant currants planted too--then ripped them out--New Hampshire has discovered blister rust growing on supposedly "immune" varieties of currants--meaning the blister rust is evolving to overcome the immunity and potentially cause devastation to White Pine forests again where currants are planted. We live in a forest of White Pines, so sadly, I had to choose our big beautiful trees over the currant bushes. I don't want to take a chance. If you don't have White Pines nearby, then the currants are still an option. I do love the currants, but replaced them with Honeyberry and Blueberry bushes.

[@babboon5764]

@@ravenwolf7128 That sounds a pretty responsible and wise attitude Shame its lacking in a small but significant proportion of our species

[@tswan62]

Are the gooseberries found in the north central US and Canada the same as the gooseberries referred to in this video? They look nothing alike.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

So gooseberry/current plants made the fatal sin of threatening the profits of lumber concerns. And thus, the death sentence.

[@digitalranger4259]

I treat my garden with various organic compounds to treat, among other things, an occasional rust on my tomatoes. I find it hard to believe that one can't treat the berries and break the life cycle.

[@milosterwheeler2520]

I've wondered for years why Gooseberries and Currants weren't available here in the U.S. I had read of them so many times in English literature and wanted to be able to taste Gooseberry pie and Currant jam. Thanks for this.

[@kimberlyperrotis8962]

I learned about them from British literature, too. I’ve never tasted either.🙂

[@14beans]

I grew up with black and red currant bushes in northern NM. I never knew all of this, thank you so much. I just ordered three plants from Hirt's

[@hoosiermomma1571]

Helping my Grandpa pick gooseberries in the garden is a treasured childhood memory. Granny made gooseberry pies to freeze so that they could enjoy them through the wintertime. We live in SW Indiana, btw.

[@greggi47]

My grandparents in Iowa had two gooseberry bushes in their yard. As a little kid, I thought they were too puckery. Now I wish I could get some of those--which, aside from maybe one or two pies in a year were not used.

[@chrismyers2047]

My grandparents in Tennessee had two gooseberry bushes when I was young. I think they finally died out in the late 70's or early 80's. The grandkids would pretty much strip the bushes clean of berries when they were green and sour. I don't remember how old I was when I learned that they weren't ripe till they turned purple.

[@robertreynolds2812]

I'm over 60 & I started picking wild gooseberries here in NW Arkansas when just was 6 or 7 with my granny. I took my kids to pick the berries when they were young. In certain places, the bushes flourished. Some patches were bigger than a house. We still pick a bunch each year & just love gooseberry cobbler.

[@rubysilver3299]

My father has two massive white pines growing in his yard that he transplanted from the woods over 60 years ago. During that time he has also grown currants and gooseberries in close proximity to the trees. They are entirely healthy.

[@Leftatalbuquerque]

We have red and black patches here on the farm in Northern Ontario, Grandma took great pride in them. We had one white bush, but it did not survive transplanting. Gooseberries grow wild here. Red currant jelly is a nice alternative to cranberry sauce on chicken or turkey.

[@Bobrogers99]

In the process of gooseberry eradication in New Hampshire, the crews included surveyors who mapped areas with remarkable detail. My little town had a complete set of "blister rust" maps, with every stone wall and every little stream accurately plotted.

[@RonnaHarlow]

I live in Kansas and when I was a teen, I made a gooseberry pie from wild gooseberries growing in the backyard! Those bushes are long gone. I should find and plant some new bushes and make more pie!

[@chip7772000]

I too live in kansas. If you're close to topeka, skinnards has gooseberry plants, bought one a couple weeks ago!

[@RonnaHarlow]

@@chip7772000 Good to know! Thank you!!

[@mahbriggs]

My Mother was from southeast Kansas, and would gather wild gooseberries when visiting her brothers. And yes, gooseberry pie is to die for!

[@ivancho5854]

​@@mahbriggsTry gooseberry fool, it's scrumptious!

[@wisecoconut5]

Ooohh..I am a recent transplant to SEK. I think I'll look for wild gooseberry near me. I am in Fort Scott if that interests anyone.

[@grimreaper6557]

Having served in Germany and tasted currents and gooseberrys I found them great and they reminded me of my grandmother's jellies she use to make them

[@Rolld20]

Thanks so much for covering this topic! I tasted the 'forbidden fruit' while visiting London, and wondered if I could grow them at home in the states. Seeing that mail-order nurseries refused to ship currants to my location lead me to stumble onto the history of the anti-currant campaign, and none of my family and friends had ever heard of it either. I may have to revisit the local ordinances and see if there have been any changes recently.

[@nightowlorder2750]

If you reeeeally want to plant those berries, there is quite an easy and simple way to sneak in the seeds.

[@Rolld20]

I think I know where you going with this, and thanks for the thought, but I'm not that desperate. ;D Plus, I'm not the greatest gardener, so I'm not confident I could nurture seeds successfully. BTW, Happy Holidays to all!

[@karen23826]

Omg, I always wondered why I couldn’t find red currant in the u.s. I first tried it when I visited Germany and absolutely loved it! Thank you for solving that mystery for me :). Incidentally, my grandmother grew goose berries in her garden in Washington state, and I remember snacking on them when I visited, growing up in the 80s and early 90s.

[@PaleoCon2008]

I lived in Europe for a decade and currants and gooseberries were quite common. I'm back in the US now and we do see gooseberries in markets but I'm not sure the larger, golden berries we find are the same variety that we commonly found in Russia. But we love them and buy currant jelly when we see it.

[@ancientromewithamy]

Yes, I've bought the golden berries from specialty health food places and such, have seen black currant preserves now and then too. I had many black currant foods and drinks in Germany and I miss them! I have found it in closeout stores and some international foods sections in the US.

[@johnr797]

I believe they're called cape gooseberries

[@KlodFather]

Smorodina... I believe that is what people of FSU (former soviet union) countries call them.

[@eric2500]

@@johnr797 yep, and they like a greater variety of US soil types than the ribes family - easier to grow in theory!

[@DIYwireJewelrybyFern]

We have the golden gooseberries in western cape, South Africa. The plants come up everywhere. Good to eat and enjoy.

[@StarTrekLivz]

I used to be a Benedictine monk, and our Mother House was in England. One of the visiting monks successfully smuggled in some black current plants, and the Conventus has been growing them, and no diminution of the White Pine Forests of Michigan have been noted.

[@hankhillsnrrwurethra]

My grandparents in Western Illinois had neighbors with gooseberry bushes. All the folks in the area ate the preserves. To me it was just another of the weirdnesses out on the farm, I never gave gooseberries much thought then and had almost forgotten them, as you say. Great video! (not enough trees in that area to disturb)

[@monicajohnston8364]

This was fascinating. The house I grew up in, built in the late 1940s in Minnesota, had several large red currant bushes on the property line. I remember loving the tart flavor and eating them until my mother scolded me that I was going to get a belly ache. My aunt would always come over and pick the bushes clean to make jelly and gave us a few jars as repayment. Currant jelly on hot buttered toast is amazing!

[@lindabrown0]

Yes, love my white currant jelly on breakfast toast. They sell off really fast at church sales (lol).

[@timavery3912]

New York Stater, here, with a thriving Black Currant bush in my back yard. It was here when I bought the house, and I was skeptical of thee odd-smelling, dark berries it cranked out, until I did a little D.D. and I.D.ing on the bush, and determined that it was indeed a black currant! I made my first black currant and black elderberry liquor this Summer, and five jars of blackcurrant jam that will be going out to family members, for the Holidays. I can say this: Black currant jam is one of the best tasting, and easiest to make jams I've come across. No pectin required, due to the high tannin content. Four ingredients: Black currants, sugar, a bit of fresh lemon juice, and water. That's it. Super easy, and delicious!

[@charlesdudek7713]

I remember my introduction to red currants. I was elementary school age and was at my cousin's house. He said hey let's go out and have some currants. I had no idea what he was talking about but was anxious to check it out. We went into his backyard and we approached a bush loaded with red berries. At first I thought it was deadly nightshade and asked him if he was sure . He began eating and enjoying them. I looked at them closer and realized the berries were more translucent and rounder than nightshade so I ate them. They were a little tart but very good and different. I think that was the only currant bush I have ever seen.

[@ivy_47]

Funny enough, there is a "cape gooseberry" unrelated to the Ribes gooseberries that IS related to nightshades (tomatoes, tomatillo, etc). obviously not poisonous since it's used for food and quite delicious.

[@charlesdudek7713]

@@ivy_47 Cool! Thanks for sharing that.

[@VespasianJudea]

That’s cool man. Glad you got to enjoy them that way.

[@Chris_at_Home]

I grew up in a family of 9 kids in the 50s and 60s. We had a hedge in front of our house and my dad planted gooseberries mixed in the hedge to keep us kids out of it because the gooseberries had long thorns.

[@johnr797]

Smart to be cautious, even at that age!

[@tomnekuda3818]

My folks used to raise both the currents and gooseberries. We made jams, jellies, pies and other wonderful and tasty delights. I no longer have access to either one of these and your upload made me determined to find and plant these. I never realized the ribes could infect pine trees.

[@russellstarr9111]

When I was in grade school the cafeteria ladies made Gooseberry pie for us. I loved it and want more. It reminds me of a milder version of Rhubarb pie. I also helped my mom pick Black Currants at a neighbors home from which she made fabulous Black Currant jelly. I was told about the possible legal problem at the age of 9 or 10. It's a shame that they are not commonly found any more.

[@amadeusamwater]

My grandmother had gooseberry bushes in her garden in Iowa. Gooseberry pies were common in our family. I don't think gooseberries ever really disappeared, they just retreated to private gardens.

[@HighlanderNorth1]

I'd heard of currants long ago, but I'd never tried them. They were illegal to grow here in Delaware til the 2000s. But when the ban ended, I bought a small currant plant and grew it in a pot out of curiosity. At about that same time, I was working for a client up in a north Wilmington housing development, when she asked me to get rid of some short invasive plants growing into the lawn from a bed in the somewhat densely shaded woods behind her house. I noticed that her "weeds" had sporadic reddish berries on them. I'd only recently read about gooseberries for the first time online, and I remembered seeing images of them. These berries were a spitting image. So I pulled the invasive ones as requested, but instead of throwing them out, I put them into a pot and brought them home and planted them in a sunny area. There weren't that many, but I was able to eat a few handfuls of gooseberries over the next few summers.

[@amadeusamwater]

@@HighlanderNorth1 Gooseberries were apparently both legal and common in Iowa. When they had judging for bakery at county fairs, it seems gooseberry pies were common items. Don't recall them being used for anything but pies.

[@amyv1143]

I'm from Sioux Falls and have never even seen, let alone tried a gooseberry in my life! They did a pretty good job eradicating them in most places.

[@LaraRenee42]

Private gardens & mother nature's garden. My husband talks about his grandma going out in the woods early spring to mark where the best looking gooseberries were so she'd be ready when it was picking season. This was in NW Missouri.

[@bigd5773]

I have a very small patch of unmowable yard in Iowa. It got infested with some thistle that keeps getting in my lawn and garden. I went out yesterday to put killer on it and we found a gooseberry bush. My wife grew up around her and said she’d had some pies as a kid. Then today this gooseberry YT video was recommended to me (and it is totally different from my other recommendations and watched videos)… They’re spying on us.

[@roboterson]

As a Canadian I had not heard of black currants until I was into my teens but later found out a delisious drink I had at one of my friends house turned out to be Ribena. I still buy it when its available(way more common then it used to be, in large chains now), but most of my friends who try it have never even heard of black currants.

[@Valadit]

My dad had two gooseberry bushes in our backyard growing up, I don’t think either of us ever thought it could be a problem, or even that most of our neighbors hadn’t had them before. Yet, now that I’m thinking about it, I’ve never seen Gooseberries being sold anywhere. Thanks for the history!

[@californiahiker9616]

I grew up in Germany. My family had red, yellow, and black current berry bushes in their yard, as well as red and yellow or green gooseberries. Having lived in California for over 50 years I haven’t seen any of these berries. After moving to Washington State a year ago I saw these bushes in nurseries. I promptly bought several of these bushes and planted them in my garden. They are carrying fruit this year and I can hardly wait until they ripen!

[@LeifES]

Black currant soup/toddy is very common in Norway and it is extra delicious on a cold day or when you have the flu to soothe the throat. We used to have red and black currant bushes in our garden at 68,7 degrees of latitude north. Thank you for the interesting video!

[@ReyOfLight]

Wow, that sounds like Troms or even southern areas of Finnmark? (I’m Swedish but spent my childhood summer vacations caravan camping in the far north of Scandinavia, all the way up to Northcape)

[@LeifES]

@@ReyOfLight Not so far north. But almost! 😉

[@wendyscoates3458]

Great article! My husband and I travel to England once a year. Although he is a native to England, I am American, and was surprised to find these lovely little black currants and how delicious they are! I always make sure to bring home a jar of black currant jelly. My husband introduced our children to Ribena, which they adored and now I know why. I always wondered why I could never find anything similar here in the states. Finally I have the answer. It was very interesting to learn about all the different types of currants and their origins. I’m also glad to hear that they are trying to make a comeback.

[@onliwankannoli]

Thank you History Guy! Gooseberry pie is my very favorite dessert. Unfortunately I now live too far south to grow them as the bushes need a hard winter freeze. I have been doing some research to find a variety more suitable to the south, but now I need to make sure it’s also blister rust resistant to protect the white pines in my backyard.

[@paulkinzer7661]

Clearly, currents and gooseberries are highly prized somewhere: the photos and short video pieces of them that you shared with us are really beautiful. Another 'Who knew?!" episode. Fascinating, as always.

[@therealzilch]

Fascinating as usual. When I first came to Austria from California, I just assumed that these wonderful fruits simply didn't grow in the US for some reason. We have raised gooseberries, black currants, and red currants here on our balconey. A wonderful tart and rich taste. The German name for red currants, _Ribisel,_ is obviously taken from the Latin. Gheers from cloudy Vienna, Scott

[@E5PY]

Your intro was shocking but the video in its entirety was quite delightful. Thank you so much for making it and sharing it with the world.

[@ajg617]

My German grandparents used to make Speckkuchen - bacon, onions, black currants in a flour crust. I could never get mine to taste quite as good - and now I know why after looking at the raisin version.

[@rayvg7709]

Im from the Netherlands and an aunt of mine has several red currant plants in their little orchard. We'd harvest buckets full every year and grandma would often make persevere which was delicious on pancakes.

[@roxannaweaver2155]

When I was a kid there were loads of gooseberry bushes growing along the Little Goose Creek a couple blocks from where we lived at the time. There was a wooden swing bridge over the river on our way to the park and we would stop long enough to get down in those bushes and pig out on the fruit. They were fairly large ones too. The path of that creek got changed about 40 years ago and all the bushes are gone, replaced by a paved street. Such a shame.

[@stevenhall8964]

Roxanna Weaver are you talking about Little Goose Creek in Sheridan Wyoming? There used to be really good Trout fishing there also. There still is trout but not in the numbers there used to be!

[@roxannaweaver2155]

@@stevenhall8964 That's the one.

[@TruthismoreSimple]

This whole video came as a complete surprise to me as I ate wild currants (both black and red) during my childhood. My grandparents grew them. Hikes in the wilds, one could find currants, raspberries, and blueberries everywhere once you got away from the urban areas. This was mid 70s to mid 80s. Then I moved to Texas and these things disappeared as new stuff took over. So head to Wisconsin if you want wild currants. They exist in abundance once you are off the beaten track....

[@kathyw.906]

AWESOME! I have grown black red and white currants for a research/demonstration orchard for 16 years! Your video is the exact story I have read and told over the years but with a bit more detail. Black currant are my favorite berry - they make excellent jam that you can taste with peanut butter and they make excellent liquor and wine. Oh, and ice cream! I also love them fresh. The plants smell like cat pee and fruit tastes piney (and sweet/tart). The first year of production, I asked my supplier how to tell when the berries were ripe since they turn black right away, and she said to just keep tasting them. Well, they don't taste very good when they are underripe! So I grew to appreciate them that year. When they become ripe, you'll know it. The one story I've read that I didn't hear here, so perhaps it isn't true, is that England was short on citrus fruits during WW1. So when they became concerned about another war coming, they invested in black currants so that they had a local source of vitamin C. This is how it became so popular. I've read that in England, you can also get your liquid medicines flavored as 'currant'! I'd like that. There are varieties of black currant that are resistant to WPBR. I can't really say that I've seen the rust on red or white or clove-type currants. Nor on gooseberries. But we are hundreds of miles from white pine areas. Our susceptible black currant plants still get it tho! The spores blow in on the wind from the white pines to the east, I assume. It's no problem to the currant plants as it usually develops after harvest and the plant's life cycle is complete. The rusty leaves Won't infect next years crop. Thanks again for this history lesson!!! I hope more people become intrigued by them. You only need 1 plant to have fruit, so try them! (Titania and Minaj Smyriou are resistant.) (Ben Sarek is sold everywhere but I hated it - too sour and the berries sunburned). Red: try Jonkeer van Tets. White currants: Meh.

[@gryffinkat]

Blackcurrant definitely deserved to be remembered and brought back. I grew up in America but have lived in the UK for about 5 years total, and I always really loved the taste of blackcurrant. There's nothing else quite like it. Can we claim that they are a superfood? That would easily get a lot more people to grow and sell them! :D

[@ReyOfLight]

I’d definitely consider them a super food that health wise could be in league with açaí but a lot easier to cultivate

[@darlinspaces]

I would buy them! Here in Ontario since the Spring, they sell red currants for about 7 dollars for a small box. It just comes across as food for people who want to look rich or something LOL.