While this blog has expanded from “just” travel to the renovations done to our house, picking (and processing for the freezer) gooseberries gives plenty of time for thoughtful reflection so here are some of my musings.

As we moved into the house and lifted the house up to put in a new basement, we found two red currant bushes hidden in a corner. We had Roger pick them up with his front-end loader and put them in the middle of what would become our vegetable garden. Loving all small fruit and berries, we were glad to save these bushes. They lived happily in the middle of our veg garden for two years while recovering from the move … then we moved them forward of the veg garden and went to the garden centre where we acquired and planted company for the two red currant bushes … another red currant bush as well as two black currant bushes and a couple of gooseberry bushes.

All of these have thrived – this year’s gooseberry harvest was 17 litres from the original two gooseberry bushes, two more we added later and one that came up in the grass from one of the early added bushes!

And, what, you asked, do I do with all these gooseberries? Well, first I wash them then top and tail them – removing the little stem and scraping off the remainder of the blossom.

I then set aside enough to make a batch of gooseberry jam – the instructions carefully saved from Certo bottles of 20 years ago since nowadays Certo only offers three or four of the most popular jam recipes!

Then I line cookie trays with wax paper and spread the rest of the gooseberries out. I stack the trays in the freezer – which is usually pretty empty at this time of year – overnight. The next day, I take the gooseberries off of the trays and put them in bags and put them in the freezer.

Throughout the winter, we enjoy gooseberry pies. I also make gooseberry-yoghurt popsicles:

2 cups yoghurt

1 cup thawed gooseberries

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

Blend with immersion blender before pouring the mixture into an ice cream maker. Follow the ice cream maker instructions and when not too solid use a teaspoon to fill popsicle molds, put in freezer until frozen. Unmold and enjoy. Makes about 9-10 depending on size of molds!

This year’s garden, above, just before it went stark raving mad .. everything is much, much bigger now .. the dill plants are taller than I am and the beans produced 12 quarts today. The currant and gooseberry bushes are behind the photographer! We certainly love the summer when “What’s for dinner?” is answered “What is ready in the garden today?”