Editing Gooseberry

{{Short description|Species of Ribes cultivated for its edible fruit}}
{{About|the cultivated fruit|the plant species|Ribes uva-crispa{{!}}''Ribes uva-crispa''|the breakwater|Mulberry harbours#Breakwaters}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
[[File:Stachelbeeren.jpg|thumb|upright|Green gooseberries]]
[[File:Stachelbeere (Ribes uva-crispa).jpg|thumb|upright|Red berries of ''[[Ribes uva-crispa]]'' ]]
<!--Intentionally no Automatic taxobox or Speciesbox, see move discussion from 12 August 2020-->'''Gooseberry''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|uː|s|b|ɛ|r|i}} {{respelling|GOOSS|berr|ee}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|uː|z|b|ɛ|r|i}} {{respelling|GOOZ|berr|ee}} (American and northern British) or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|ʊ|z|b|ər|i}} {{respelling|GUUZ|bər|ee}} (southern British)){{r|oed}} is a common name for many species of ''[[Ribes]]'' (which also includes [[Ribes|currants]]), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance, and also several unrelated plants (see [[List of gooseberries]]). The berries of those in the genus ''Ribes'' (sometimes placed in the genus ''Grossularia'') are edible and may be green, orange, red, purple, yellow, white, or black.<ref name="Baker">{{cite book |author=Harry Baker |year=1999 |title=Growing Fruit |publisher=Octopus Publishing Group |isbn=9781840001532 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9AO6JAAACAAJ |page=70}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.northernontarioflora.ca/description.cfm?speciesid=1004265 |title=Northern Ontario Plant Database |access-date=26 July 2014}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The ''goose'' in ''gooseberry'' has been mistakenly seen as a corruption of either the [[Dutch language|Dutch]] word {{lang|nl|kruisbes}} or the allied [[German language|German]] {{Lang|de|Krausbeere}},<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wedgwood |first=Hensleigh |author-link=Hensleigh Wedgwood |title=On False Etymologies |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3924121;view=1up;seq=79 |year=1855 |issue=6 |page=69 }}</ref> or of the earlier forms of the [[French language|French]] {{lang|fr|groseille}}. Alternatively, the word has been connected to the [[Middle High German]] {{lang|gmh|krus}} ('curl, crisped'), in Latin as {{lang|la|grossularia}}.<ref name="Harper">{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=gooseberry |title=Gooseberry |publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper |date=2018 |access-date=21 May 2018 }}</ref> [[File:Illustration Ribes uva-crispa0.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Ribes uva-crispa]]'' by [[Otto Wilhelm Thomé]] (1885), showing the distinctive curl of the flower petals<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Otto Wilhelm Thomé |last=Thomé |first=Otto Wilhelm |year=1885 |title=Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz |trans-title=Flora of German, Austria and Switzerland |language=de }}</ref>]] However, the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' takes the more literal derivation from ''[[goose]]'' and ''[[berry]]'' as probable because "the grounds on which [[plant]]s and [[fruit]]s have received names associating them with [[animal]]s are so often inexplicable that the inappropriateness in the meaning does not necessarily give good grounds for believing that the word is an etymological corruption".<ref name="Harper"/> The [[French language|French]] for gooseberry is {{lang|fr|groseille à maquereau}}, translated as 'mackerel berries', due to their use in a sauce for [[mackerel]] in old French cuisine.<ref name="dt" /> The word first appears in written English in the 16th century.<ref>“Gooseberry, N.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, December 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1118486249.</ref> In Britain, gooseberries may informally be called ''goosegogs''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/goosegog |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522042128/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/goosegog |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 May 2018 |title=Goosegog |publisher=Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press |date=2018 |access-date=21 May 2018 }}</ref>

''Gooseberry bush'' was 19th-century slang for [[pubic hair]], and from this comes the saying that babies are "born under a gooseberry bush".<ref name="dt">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/qi/4736383/QI-Quite-Interesting-facts-about-costermongers.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227162435/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/qi/4736383/QI-Quite-Interesting-facts-about-costermongers.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 February 2009 |title=QI: Quite Interesting facts about costermongers |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=23 March 2009 |first1=Molly |last1=Oldfield |first2=John |last2=Mitchinson }}</ref>

==Ecology==
[[File:Gooseberry flower1.jpg|thumb|right|''Ribes uva-crispa'', blossoming in Latvia]]
Black bears, various birds and small mammals eat the berries, while game animals, coyotes, foxes and raccoons browse the foliage.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Angier |first=Bradford |author-link=Bradford Angier |url=https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetoedib00angi/page/68/mode/2up |title=Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants |publisher=Stackpole Books |year=1974 |isbn=0-8117-0616-8 |location=Harrisburg, PA |pages=68 |oclc=799792}}</ref>

==Cultivation==

=== In history ===
{{over-quotation|section|date=March 2023}}
Gooseberry growing was popular in 19th-century Britain. The 1879 edition of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica|Encyclopedia Britannica]]'' described gooseberries thus:<ref name="Baynes">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1879 |title=Gooseberry |encyclopedia=The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature |publisher=C. Scribner's sons |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3c87AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA779 |editor-last=Baynes |editor-first=T. S. |volume=10 |page=779}}</ref> 
<blockquote>The gooseberry is indigenous to many parts of Europe and western [[Asia]], growing naturally in [[alpine climate|alpine]] thickets and [[Rock (geology)|rocky]] [[Forest|woods]] in the lower country, from [[France]] eastward, well into the Himalayas and peninsular India.
In [[Great Britain|Britain]], it is often found in [[copse]]s and [[hedgerow]]s and about old ruins, but the gooseberry has been cultivated for so long that it is difficult to distinguish wild bushes from feral ones, or to determine where the gooseberry fits into the native flora of the island. Common as it is now on some of the lower slopes of the [[Alps]] of [[Piedmont (Italy)|Piedmont]] and [[Savoy]], it is uncertain whether the [[ancient Rome|Romans]] were acquainted with the gooseberry, though it may possibly be alluded to in a vague passage of [[Pliny the Elder]]'s ''[[Pliny's Natural History|Natural History]]''; the hot summers of [[Italy]], in ancient times as at present, would be unfavourable to its cultivation. Although gooseberries are now abundant in [[Germany]] and [[France]], it does not appear to have been much grown there in the [[Middle Ages]], though the wild fruit was held in some esteem [[Pharmacology|medicinally]] for the cooling properties of its [[acid]] juice in [[fever]]s; while the old [[English language|English]] name, ''Fea-berry'', still surviving in some provincial dialects, indicates that it was similarly valued in Britain, where it was planted in gardens at a comparatively early period.<ref>{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Gooseberry|volume=12|page=243}}</ref>

[[William Turner (ornithologist)|William Turner]] describes the gooseberry in his ''Herball'', written about the middle of the 16th century, and a few years later it is mentioned in one of Thomas Tusser's quaint rhymes as an ordinary object of garden culture. Improved varieties were probably first raised by the skilful gardeners of [[Holland]], whose name for the fruit, ''Kruisbezie'', may have been corrupted into the present English vernacular word. Towards the end of the 18th century the gooseberry became a favourite object of cottage-horticulture, especially in [[Lancashire, England|Lancashire]], where the working [[cotton]]-spinners raised numerous varieties from [[seed]], their efforts having been chiefly directed to increasing the size of the fruit.<ref name="Baynes" />

Of the many hundred sorts enumerated in recent horticultural works, few perhaps equal in flavour some of the older denizens of the fruit-garden, such as the ''Old Rough Red'' and ''Hairy Amber''. The [[climate]] of the [[British Isles]] seems peculiarly adapted to bring the gooseberry to perfection, and it may be grown successfully even in the most northern parts of [[Scotland]]; indeed, the flavour of the fruit is said to improve with increasing latitude. In [[Norway]] even, the bush flourishes in gardens on the west coast nearly up to the [[Arctic]] Circle, and it is found wild as far north as 63°. The dry summers of the French and German plains are less suited to it, though it is grown in some hilly districts with tolerable success. The gooseberry in the south of England will grow well in cool situations and may sometimes be seen in gardens near [[London]] flourishing under the partial shade of [[Apple (fruit)|apple]] [[tree]]s, but in the north it needs full exposure to the sun to bring the fruit to perfection. It will succeed in almost any [[soil]] but prefers a rich loam or black alluvium, and, though naturally a plant of rather dry places, will do well in moist land, if drained.<ref name="Baynes" /></blockquote>

The gooseberry was more populous in North America before it was discovered that it carries [[blister rust]], deadly to certain pines, resulting in its removal from forest areas.<ref name=":0" />

=== Modern cultivation ===
[[File:Gooseberry sectioned.jpg|thumb|left|Sectioned gooseberries showing seeds]]

Humans cultivate gooseberries as insect habitats or directly for the sweet fruits. Numerous [[cultivars]] have been developed for both commercial and domestic use. Of special note are ''Ribes'' 'Careless', 'Greenfinch', 'Invicta', 'Leveller', and 'Whinham's Industry', to which the [[Royal Horticultural Society]] has awarded [[Award of Garden Merit|Garden Merit]].<ref name="apps.rhs.org.uk">{{cite web|title=Results > Search for AGM plants / RHS Gardening|url=http://apps.rhs.org.uk/agm/Award2.asp?User2=Fr&crit=ribes|work=rhs.org.uk}}</ref>

''Ribes'' gooseberries are commonly raised from cuttings rather than seed; cuttings planted in the autumn will take root quickly and begin to bear fruit within a few years. Nevertheless, bushes planted from seed also rapidly reach maturity, exhibit similar pest-tolerance, and yield heavily. Fruit is produced on lateral spurs and the previous year's shoots.<ref name="Baynes" />

Gooseberries must be pruned to insolate <!-- Not typo for "insulate" --> the interior and make space for the next year's branches, as well as reduce scratching from the spines when picking. Overladen branches can be (and often are) cut off complete with berries without substantially harming the plant. Heavy nitrogen composting produces excessive growth, weakening the bush to mildew.<ref name="Baynes" />

===Fungal pests===
Gooseberries, like other members of genus ''Ribes'', are [[Ribes#United States of America|banned or restricted]] in several states of the United States because they are secondary (telial) hosts for [[Cronartium ribicola|white pine blister rust]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=White pine blister rust |publisher=University of Minnesota Extension |url=https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/white-pine-blister-rust |access-date=3 August 2021}}</ref>

===Insect habitat===
Gooseberry bushes (''Ribes'') are hosts to magpie moth (''[[Abraxas grossulariata]]'') [[caterpillar]]s.<ref name=Baynes/> Gooseberry plants are also a preferred host plant for comma butterfly (''[[Polygonia c-album]]''), whose larvae frequently feed upon the plant during the development stage,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Janz|first1=Niklas|last2=Nylin|first2=Sören|last3=Wedell|first3=Nina|date=1994|title=Host Plant Utilization in the Comma Butterfly: Sources of Variation and Evolutionary Implications|jstor=4220740|journal=Oecologia|volume=99|issue=1/2|pages=132–140|doi=10.1007/bf00317093|pmid=28313958|bibcode=1994Oecol..99..132J|s2cid=25442043}}</ref> v-moth (''[[Macaria wauaria]]''), and gooseberry sawfly (''[[Nematus ribesii]]'').<ref name=Baynes/> ''[[Nematus ribesii]]'' grubs will bury themselves in the ground to pupate; on hatching into adult form, they lay their eggs, which hatch into larvae on the underside of gooseberry leaves.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

== Culinary uses ==
Gooseberries are edible and can be eaten raw, or cooked as an ingredient in desserts, such as [[pie]]s,<ref name=":0" /> [[fruit fool|fools]] and [[crumble]]s. Early pickings are generally sour and more appropriate for culinary use. This includes most supermarket gooseberries, which are often picked before fully ripe to increase shelf life.<ref name="Baynes" /> Gooseberries are also used to flavour beverages such as [[soft drink|sodas]], [[flavoured water]]s, or [[milk]], and can be made into [[fruit wine]]s and [[tea]]s. Gooseberries can be preserved in the form of [[fruit preserves|jams]], [[drying (food)|dried fruit]], as the primary or a secondary ingredient in [[pickling]], or stored in [[sugar syrup]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}  Pastry dishes often pair gooseberry with flavors such as [[hazelnut]], [[honey]], [[raspberry]], [[strawberry]], and [[white chocolate]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=Tish |title=Plating for Gold: A Decade of Desserts from the World and National Pastry Team Championships |date=2012 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-05984-5 |location=Hoboken, N.J |pages=30 |via=[[Perlego]]}}</ref>

===Nutrition===
Raw gooseberries are 88% water, 10% [[carbohydrate]]s, and 1% each of [[fat]] and [[protein (nutrient)|protein]].<ref name="fdc">{{cite web |title=Raw gooseberries per 100 grams |url=https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173030/nutrients |publisher=FoodData Central, US Department of Agriculture |access-date=16 July 2024 |date=1 April 2019}}</ref> In a reference amount of {{cvt|100|g}}, raw gooseberries supply 44 [[calorie]]s and are a rich source of [[vitamin C]] (31% of the [[Daily Value]]), with no other [[micronutrient]]s in significant content.<ref name=fdc/>

==See also==
{{Portal|Plants|Food}}
* [[List of gooseberries]]

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=oed>[[Oxford English Dictionary]] 2nd edition, 1989. Accessed online 22 April 2010. (Note however that the OED has final /ɪ/, as this entry predates its acceptance of [[happy-tensing|''happy''-tensing]].)</ref>
}}
<!--intentionally no taxonbar; see move discussion from 12 August 2020-->

[[Category:Berries]]