Gooseberry 2018
Jonathan and Denise >
Our Gooseberry 2018 harvest kicked off in the last week of June, and finished about six weeks later. (That’s pretty much the same every year, or at least it is so here in Uist.) First to be picked, Invicta starts green, turns bronze with blushings of red-brown, and finally turns deep red-brown all over. It’s harvested at both of the changes : the first harvest is for culinary uses ; the second is for desert uses. Leveller and Careless provide the bulk of our harvest, mostly early to mid July: these large green fruit are perfect for freezing for culinary use during the winter, for inclusion in jams, and above all for wine-making, which results in delightfully crisp light white wine, which could easily be mistaken for a good white grape wine.
Black Velvet is a red gooseberry, not very big, but exceptionally sweet and tasty. We use these for making jellies, and for mixing with green gooseberries to add depth of colour, flavour and sweetness. Wines made purely with Black Velvet have a wonderful flavour and colour, but can be too sweet for our taste : this year we have made a Black Velvet wine, but have used half the quantity of (added) sugar that’s recommended in recipes for gooseberry wine.
Most of our finished wines go into ‘bag in a box’ containers, which have the advantages of simplicity and economy in storage ; they also help to limit us to one glass each per occasion! For those more occasional occasions, however, we bottle some of the wine : this year we’re experimenting with re-purposed olive-oil bottles.
In case you’re wondering : Whilst gooseberries made into jams jellies and chutneys are sold in the The Hebridean Woolshed‘s garden-shop; our wines are not for sale – they’re all for just us two!!
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Your photos are gorgeous–so rich and detailed! You make the most of your harvest!
Oh, wonderful! I have never tasted gooseberries, on their own or in wine. But I long to. Maybe some day.
All look most tempting! I’m particularly interested as I’m hoping to plant a gooseberry in our little garden next year. The Black Velvet sounds very nice indeed!
D > If your diet is low on added sugar, you’ll find the Black Velvet is lovely to eat fresh from the bush (topped and tailed). If you’re patient, even one bush will after 2 or 3 years provide an abundance of fruit. If you’d like to make more space available, rather than grow more Black Velvet, which loses its sweetness when cooked. I would suggest you try one of the green varieties, especially Leveller, as they actually improve with cooking and they freeze better too.
Thank you for advice! I think we should really go for Leveller, although I love the look of Black Velvet.
Lovely Overview of the different kinds you grow! and those wines look delightful..
I had not realized that you brew your own wines! What bacterias do you use?
I am always fascinated by these things we do that are such amazing transformations; fruits into wines, raw fleece into a garment, flour with other ingredients into bread, and spices with vinegar into mustard, just to name a few. Its so riveting to me how these ingredients at the start that are not so great on thier own become something so wonderful at the end. I always find myself rejoicing in these simple processes!
D > Yeast, not bacteria. We use special wine yeasts that come in sachets. They are made by a UK company that is one of the world-wide leading ‘growers’ and distributors of brewing yeasts.