Gooseberries

I love walking out into the garden to find surprises.

Lately, I have been busy with the strawberry crop. We have been eating them fresh  with every meal (and in-between also), been freezing them on cookie sheets to be stored in freezer bags, running loads through the dehydrator, and supplying most of the neighborhood with boxes of the delicious fruit.

With this 100 degree heat we experienced over the last week, the berries have dwindled down to the last couple pickings. The fruit is lo longer the big luscious berries from the first ripenings, the berries are much smaller and do not carry as much water, they are also much sweeter than the early fruit. Many people prefer to use these later berries for toppings and jams because of the sweet content.

With this dwindling, I am no longer all-consumed with the strawberries, and I have had a  chance to look around at what the other fruits are up to. I was delighted to see the gooseberry bush, the one that my brother and sister-in-law had separated from their massive bush two years ago, loaded with little berries about the size of marbles. I could not wait to try a handful. I puckered immediately. I knew they were a little immature but these little green berries are about a month away from being ripe. Flashbacks to childhood and daring the other kids to eat unripe fruit without that pucker-face danced around me.

I’ll be content with that one mouthful of sourness and wait for the gooseberries to ripen before trying that again (at least for this year).