"Martin Brown" wrote
Bob Hobden wrote:
When do you pick yours? I ask as I notice one of our allotment holders
has picked most of theirs already before they are even fully grown let
alone ripe and sweet. Why would they do that?

To annoy the birds?

I didn't get *any* fruit set on my gooseberries this year. There were no
flying insects about when they flowered and they suffered frost damage into
the bargain. Lots of new strong shoots but no fruit at all!

Shame as one of them is a dark red sweet desert gooseberry almost edible
raw (and delicious when stewed with minimal sugar).

Currants and josta berries both have a crop so it must have just been very
bad timing that the gooseberries failed so completely.


We have three bushes, one red one we bought that does not appear to be
fruiting and two given to me by another allotment holder which are covered
in fruit. They are the sweetest Gooseberries I've ever tasted and we eat
them straight off the bush once they are ripe and turned yellow in a couple
of months. No idea on variety, the giver doesn't know either as they were
his Mums, but I'm going to strike some more cuttings as friends could not
believe Gooseberries could be so sweet.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK