Dumb question, I know, but I planted gooseberries last year. The birds beat me to them. They are a green variety and they started out green and still are so how do I know if they are ready to pick?
Hi calvinjane, My book says "the berries grow in long clusters, ripening over a period of 4 - 6 weeks in late summer. When all the berries in a cluster attain full color, they're considered ripe. They gradually become sweeter with ripening, but slightly underripe fruit contain the most pectin. They sunburn easily so keep them out of the sun as you pick. Most gooseberries are thorny so wear gloves to pick them if necessary." Hope this helps. I have only been on the receiving end of someone else's bounty and did not have to pick them myself. they were both the green and the red and reminded me of grapes for their plumpness and feel, if this helps any.
Don't grow them, and don't eat them. But I bet ripe ones are softer than green ones. When all else fails pick one you think is ripest, and try it?
Hello CJ, I have grown gooseberries for several years. I had bushes with red fruits and ones with green fruit. The green ones that you are asking about would turn yellowish when they were ripe. When in doubt, I just picked one to sample (like Coppice suggests)....you know, sort of a quality control, you understand. I had a number of bushes and grew them in an espalier fashion to allow for easy picking --those darn thorns! I had so many that I made jam from them, and so like in the info that Carolyn showed above...I would always include a number of not fully ripe ones (still greenish), exactly because they contained more pectin. I do this with all fruits that I make jam out of. Eventually I found a new home for my bushes because i just got tired of the prickers. They are different ant thereby 'meaner' than say rose or blackberry thorns. The roses and blackberry bushed have these large thorns with very thick bases...you could at least see those coming. I found my gooseberry bushes to have more needle-like prickers. I tried picking with gloves, but I decided that I couldn't feel the berries adequately whilst picking. I also use the feel of this fruit to determine if it is ripe enough. Wearing gloves made me feel like a bull in a china shop and I regularly damaged the fruit because I just didn't have enough feeling through them. Good luck.
your not alone calvin, my first year with gooseberries and struggling to work out when to pick. I'm at the point now where i might harvest the lot and process them all down.
