Well, gooseberry harvest anyway. After all my panicking about mould, I am extremely pleased to report that our gooseberry bush has produced masses of fruit. So: the solution to American gooseberry mildew is to catch it early and chop it off. So far we’ve had about 4lb of fruit from the bush and there’s still more to come. We’ve had gooseberry fool and gooseberry tart. – both delicious, though I say so myself. Not sure what to make next – any suggestions?
A very pleasing crop
The Vicar's Wife 
How about some kind of Ice-cream or frozen yoghurts (even ones in moulds for the children)? (I’m not a gooseberry fan so I’ve no idea if it would work!) My Ice-cream maker is one of the small gadgets that we love at this time of year!
We’ve had our first small crop of Strawberries this year and I made ice-cream….must buy some more plants so we get crop over a longer period of time. Now we await the blackberries!!
Hi KV. Great idea! Frozen gooseberry fool, basically. Sounds lovely. Now to dig out my icecream maker… (and find room in the freezer for the bowl… hmmm).
And may I congratulate you on another excellent choice of bowl. It has restored my equilibrium following your last post. Mrs NS and I are having to take a weekend away due to point 10 in that post. (or is it because of a birthday and an OFSTED inspection this week).
JAM!
You may find this difficult to believe but gooseberries work really well with fish. Try pan frying a couple of mackerel and making a gooseberry sauce. Simple supper for you and the vicar to enjoy. It’s a bit of an ask for kids.
Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall was making strawberry and gooseberry jam this week. I think the idea is that the tartness of the gooseberries offsets some of the sweetness of the strawberries. It looked delicious, anyway.
I have been looking out for gooseberries this year on our market but there have been none around. (Mangoes yes aplenty, but gooseberries, not at all!) I don’t have any gooseberry recipes in my online cookbook (something I need to rectify when I can find some).
When I can get them, we love gooseberry & apricot pie/tart – you can use fresh or dried apricots, but it does need a good amount of sugar. Gooseberry fool is good too – use half and half cream and creme fraiche. Enjoy!
hopeeternal
‘Meanderings through my Cookbook’
http://www.hopeeternalcookbook.wordpress.com
Thankyou so much for reassuring me. I too am excited by summer fruits and sometimes feel like I’m a throw-back from the past. No-one else I know makes so much jam and chutney and does patchwork. Maybe it’s the Anglican in me.
Goes well with duck. search for gordon ramsey, duck, gooseberry. yum!