Gooseberry Lady Delameen - Ribes uva-crispa

The Gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) 'Lady Delameen' is a productive variety, producing large green-yellow fruits with a slightly sweet flavor. The Gooseberry is a bushy plant, easy to grow but sensitive to drought. Delicious to eat, the berries are ideal for making jams, jellies, pies, or as an accompaniment to meat and fish. Plant from October to March for a harvest in July.

Cultivated in northern Europe since the 16th century, the Gooseberry is a fertile hybrid resulting from the cross-breeding of two species native to Europe and North Africa, still found in montane forests in Scotland, France, and the Caucasus. The Gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) belongs to the Grossulariaceae family, like the Red Currant (Ribes rubrum). This bush resembles classic currants but is mainly different in terms of its fruit: larger, with a sweet flavour, and appearing solitarily along the branches unlike clustered currants.

The Gooseberry is a bushy plant, branching from the base, reaching a height of 1m (3ft) with a spread of 75cm (30in). Its deciduous leaves are toothed and pubescent, ranging from bright green to medium green. Apart from a few inermous varieties, the Gooseberry has thorny stems. In spring, it is adorned with small, honey-scented flowers, white-green in colour. These flowers will transform into translucent berries, round to oval in shape, with a diameter of 1.5cm (1in), distributed along the branches. Depending on the variety, these berries can be red, white, or yellow-green. The fruits are harvested when fully ripe and easily detach from their support. The harvest is around 3 to 4 kg per plant.

The Gooseberry is a fruit with low sugar content, therefore low in calories, rich in vitamins C, A, and B, and well supplied with minerals (calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus). The fruit is purifying for the body thanks to its diuretic, digestive, liver decongestant, and laxative properties, provided it is consumed when barely ripe. Gooseberries can be enjoyed freshly picked or consumed in sweet dishes (pies, jams, jellies etc.) or savoury dishes (accompanying meat, fish. etc.). Traditionally, in Nordic countries, the juice of the fruit was used in a sweet and sour sauce that accompanied mackerel dishes (hence the origin of the shrub's name).

In the garden, Gooseberries can be used in a small edible hedge, mixed with other currants and raspberries, but they can also form a dense defensive hedge thanks to their numerous thorns, which must be avoided during harvest. It is a very hardy plant, easy to grow but sensitive to drought.