Gooseberry Goodness

Gooseberries in my jam making pot.

   I had a surprise yesterday. Our neighbors across the road seem to have adopted us, their kids are all in their late 30's and from what we've heard, not particularly the kind of grown children one is entirely proud of. Anyway, they often chat with us when we bump into them and seem to have taken us under their wing. They have an allotment and occasionally we get their 'allotment leftovers' (the extra stuff they don't want or need). On Tuesday it was a bag full of potatoes, cabbage and rhubarb. But then I got a knock on the door yesterday  and received a bag full of gooseberries.
   I have never eaten a gooseberry before, or any product containing gooseberries. My only experience with gooseberries at all is that they are the only berry that none of my Viva Pinata animals will eat and can't be turned into anything useful by Bart. (Sorry if no one knows what Viva Pinata is, but it's a fun and slightly addictive video game for kids that I really shouldn't like, but I do.) Anywho, out came my trusty jam cookbook, I was pretty sure there was a recipe in there for gooseberries... and sure enough I found it. Although I was a bit disappointed to discover that here too the dear gooseberry had been rather neglected, only got two pages and one recipe, the intro section took up more space then the actual recipe itself. But I set to work and made a small batch. I think I probably got about a pint of jam out of two pounds of gooseberries. I again cut back on the sugar, I think the recipes in the book add too much generally and too much sugar stifles the fruit flavors and since I've never had gooseberry anything I thought I'd like to know what they actually taste like.

Gooseberry Jam.

   I was hoping the finished jam would retain the bright green color of the berries, but sadly it went a bit brownish orange. This could mean I scorched the sugar a bit, so if more of these green gems land in my lap I might try warming the sugar first. I also left the seeds in, the recipe recommended that I strain them out with a food mill, but I don't have a food mill and trying to strain all the pulp through my little plastic sieve wasn't happening. The seeds are really small and seem tender enough so I just left them. Plus they make it look nice in the jars.
   The finished product is nice, not really like anything I've ever had before. Now that I've used them for jam I'm wondering what else gooseberries are good for. I know you can eat them raw but they're a bit sour/bitter so I'm not sure about that. i thought about mixing some in with my next batch of Pims or white wine sangria. If anyone out there has any ideas about how else to use gooseberries please comment and let me know!