Garlic and Gooseberries: Gooseberry Demise

I imagine you all waiting with bated breath for news of the unripe gooseberries I brought home the first day, the very berries that inspired the name of this series, along with the now dead garlic. Well, I have a story for you.

My fruit allergy did not stop me from wanting to make jelly, knowing there would be willing consumers amongst my friends, and family, and so I picked a recipe for Gooseberry-Lemon Verbena Jelly from Preserving For All Seasons by Anne Gardon.

I was particularly excited because lemon verbena was one of the herbs I had just planted. I eagerly waited for the berries to ripen and for the herb plant to grow enough leaves to fill a cup measure.

Timing is everything, right? By the time the berries ripened there were about 6 leaves on the little lemon verbena plant. 1 cup of leaves is a whole lot more than six. Undeterred, I boiled the fruit and strained it in a bag hanging over a bowl, which made the kitchen look like a mad scientist had taken over. I poured the beautiful juice into a glass container and froze it until the lemon verbena could catch up.

Yes, there was a little voice that told me this was an awful lot of effort for 4 tiny jars of jelly I would not be able to eat, at a time when I had many other things demanding my attention, but I didn’t listen. Sometimes a louder, bolder sign is needed to get my attention. One day, as I was struggling with some stubborn item in my freezer, I knocked the container of berry juice and out it flew, crashing into a million shards of glass and chips of frozen gooseberry juice. I am still finding sticky reminders everywhere.

Seriously, I may have to change the name of this blog series.

There is a happy ending to this story though. The armful of rhubarb I brought home the other day quickly went through a similar science experiment process and became a refreshing summer drink, mixed with maple syrup and a sprig of mint. Ahh, summer is a lovely season, isn’t it?