Photo shows some of my 2021 gooseberry harvest. Variety Pixwell. My gooseberry harvest was used for pies, juiced for jellies and canned breakfast juice, dehydrated into raisins, and used in vodka infusions. I bartered a bunch off as well.
In the following photos of currants, each pan represents the complete harvest from one bush. My currant berry patch consists of 75 bushes. Not all bushes were producing yet, the 2021 currant harvest was around 15 gallons of berries. I think I am going to be in big trouble starting this year, though, so I better find more folks who want them.
The following photo shows the harvest of redcurrants from a cultivar going back to at least the 1930s. My grandfather acquired and planted the original bush back then, my mother remembered picking the tart little berries when she was a child. The original bush is long gone but my father had kept it going by layering branches. His bushes are long gone as well but I kept the cultivar going by layering and then propagating by rooting cuttings. This is a very old cultivar that is no longer available to my knowledge. It is considered "undesirable" as compared to modern cultivars because the berries are very small
BB size. The berries are a pain to pick because they are so small but they pick cleanly off the strigs while most large modern currants tear. This happens to be my favorite currant for flavor, proving once again to me that flavor is never the primary characteristic in which modern cultivars of fruit are developed. This is why I do not acquire fancy new cultivars of anything.
Red raspberries. A classic variety I believe to be Heritage. I rescued my plants from an old farm site before it was bulldozed. I have quite a few other old food plant types I have rescued over the years. I harvested 50 pounds of red raspberries in 2021. I have to pick them every other day or they get bug infested. Harvest goes from late August through September or the first hard frost.
Wild black raspberries. As far as I am concerned the worst berry to harvest because of the nasty thorns, but it also happens to be hands down the best flavored berry I have. It is in very high demand around here and I get a high barter value for them, but I cannot stand harvesting them so I will not increase my plantings. 2021 was an off year due to drought so I only harvested around 20 pounds of these wonderful berries, around half of typical. Because berries do not ripen all at once the patch needs to be picked religiously every other day for around a two week period or they get bug infested.
Photo shows gallon bags each containing around 4 pounds of various kinds of clean frozen berries from 2020. I bartered this inventory in exchange for quality pork from a neighbor who raises hogs. This photo represents an awful amount of labor hours.
Photo shows a loaded branch from my old legacy redcurrant cultivar.
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