[KT]

I bought a couple of brand new bushes early in the year and too my suprise they both fruited not heavy crops i like to think of them as a taster hehe.

When are they ready? the gooseberry is a crimson variety and atm the fruit is a mid red colour? does it go dark red when ready and what about the blackcurrants do i just harvest them when they look black?

[gillie]

Gooseberries come in a variety of colours, so you will have to experiment with your particular variety.  They will probably soften slightly when at there best.

Blackcurrants are ready when they are black!  If you leave them too long they go squishy - not good.

Cheers,

Gillie

[filly]

My first year at GYO and had some blackcurrant bushes in the garden from the previous owner. Harvested them yesterday as 99% were black and got 2lb of fruit.

Just made my first ever Jam with them as I didnt know what else to do with them.

Might look into gooseberrys for next year. There very 'tart' arent they??

[Nobbie]

It depends on how tart you like your blackcurrants and how careful you are in picking them. If you pick when they first turn black they will be very tart and firm (easy to pick), but leave them a week and they get a lot sweeter and softer. Best to pick them in stages as not all ripen at the same time.

My gooseberry are as sweet as grapes now and huge. I had tried to pick them all when green, but the few that remained have now ripened and make a treat when I'm down on the fruit plot.

[HLS]

Might look into gooseberrys for next year. There very 'tart' arent they??

Depends on the variety and what you do with them!  My friends have a gooseberry bush (of unknown variety) which has smallish round gooseberries which ripen to dark pink.  They're tart if you pick them early but if you leave them until they're really ripe you can eat them straight off the bush.  My parents used to have a gooseberry bush (also of unknown variety, sorry!) which had the traditional large hairy oval green gooseberries, and those gooseberries were really sharp.  You generally add sugar to taste when you're cooking them anyway, though - I like them a bit 'zingy' but it's all according to how sweet you want it.

[filly]

Thanks for tips, will do a bit of research and go looking for some bushes for next year. Mind you so much I want to do next year, have really got the bug.

[realfood]

There is a new variety of Blackcurrant called Ebony available now. I bought one in February and it produced several strings of berries. It is a definite taste improvement in that it is much sweeter.