There’s something marvellously British about the tart and tangy gooseberry. They’re a little quirky, a bit hairy and, like bold, pasty-fleshed holidaymakers on Clacton beach, they’re ready to go earlier in the summer than any of their softer relatives. The season is fairly short – usually beginning in late May and stretching to early August at the latest.
Gooseberries have rather fallen out of favour in recent years. But they have been grown in Britain since Elizabethan times, and in the 1800s they were all the rage. Stripy green (or white or red) goosegogs had fan clubs up and down the country, particularly in the north where regular annual fairs were held for competitors to show their prized fruits.
Only two fairs of any size still exist – one at Egton Bridge in Yorkshire (worth a visit if you’re in the area on the first Tuesday in August) and another in Cheshire (hosted by the very factually named Mid-Cheshire Gooseberry Shows Association).
Not content with being our earliest summer fruit, gooseberries are also very versatile, lending themselves to a wide range of dishes, both sweet and savoury (including, incidentally, as an accompaniment to that other June favourite, mackerel).
Try: Gooseberry and elderflower cheesecake (p. 149)