English Name: Goose berry
Botanical Name: Ribes hirtellum
DESCRIPTION: An edible yellowish-green or reddish hairy berry growing in a thorny bush. Goose berries taste sour.
ORIGIN: The goose berry is derived mostly from two species: the European gooseberry (Ribes grossularia) native to the Caucasus Mountains and North Africa; and the American gooseberry (R. hirtellum) native to northeastern and northcentral of the United States and the adjacent parts of Canada.
European cultivars are pure species, but virtually all American cultivars also have European genes. In California they are fairly productive in the coolest parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, the outer Coast Ranges and Coastal Northern California. Probably, not worth trying in Southern California except at high elevations.
However, some Georgian food writers like the Scarborough based confectioner. Joseph Bell, preferred to make their goose berries heaps from the Red Champagne gooseberry earlier to authors as the Great Red Gooseberry. The gooseberry, or feaberry have been an English favorite for centuries. Gooseberry is more likely to be a corruption of the French world groseille, the generic name for red currants and gooseberries. Indeed grosberry is another English name of the fruit. It also has another variety called the Indian gooseberry.
NATURAL BENEFITS: It is an excellent herbal medicine for treatment of illnesses like: cancer, eyes problem, digestive problem, stomach upset, diabetes etc.
USES: Gooseberry is used for culinary purposes such as tarts, etc. Added to stewed fruit and cream.
Taken as a dessert
Gooseberries were a favorite sauce for fish, especially crab and mackerel.
My Cookery Zone 