Gooseberries, raw (Chrosle, monastery berries, organic?)

Raw gooseberries ( Ribes uva-crispa, syn. Ribes grossularia) are found almost throughout Europe. In July and August, the green, yellow to dark red fruits (depending on the variety) are ripe in Central Europe. They are also called Chrosle, Ogrosl or Klosterbeeren.

Use in the kitchen:

Gooseberries are very good for eating raw. Harvested from mid-July onwards, the ripe berries taste aromatically sweet like kiwi, whether green, yellow or red. Before eating, the stem and usually the rest of the flower are often removed, as both can be relatively hard. Sometimes the outer skin is still a little sour, but this makes it very refreshing. Each berry contains many small edible seeds. Some varieties have a light hairiness (i.e. a hairy skin), while others have a smooth skin. The riper the fruit, the thinner the outer skin and the more delicate the small hairs.

Gooseberries taste great in fruit salad, in your morning muesli or as a snack between meals. They add a slightly sour note to compote or cake. If you cook them down to make jam, jelly or chutney, you can harvest them a little earlier. This way, the acid and pectin content is a little higher and they gel better.

Recipe for gooseberry chutney:

Ingredients: 500 g green gooseberries, 250 g red gooseberries, 150 g onions, 1 green chilli pepper (seeded), 5 allspice berries, 1 tbspblack peppercorns, 1 tbsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp fennel seeds, 1 tsp cinnamon powder, salt, 175 g sugar, 75 g acacia honey, 150 ml red wine vinegar, 1 fresh rosemary sprig.

To make the chutney, wash and clean the gooseberries well. Then put them in a pot with the finely diced onions, finely chopped chili, spices, sugar, salt, honey and vinegar. Allow this mixture to simmer over a medium heat for around 1.5 hours until it is viscous. At the end of the cooking time, add the roughly chopped rosemary sprig. Pour the chutney into small preserving jars while it is still hot and allow it to cool. The chutney will keep for several months if it is well sealed and stored in a dark and cool place. Opened jars can be kept in the fridge for around 2 weeks.

Vegan recipes with gooseberries can be found under the note: " Recipes that have the most of this ingredient ".

Shopping - where to buy?

Gooseberries are rarely found in supermarket chains such as Denner, Aldi, Lidl, Rewe, Edeka, Hofer etc. If they are, Spar, Coop, Migros, Volg or other smaller supermarkets with links to regional producers have gooseberries in their range during the season - sometimes even organically grown. In Europe, you can also buy them in the summer (July, August) at weekly markets or directly from the farmer. This means you can be sure that gooseberries have a low _carbon footprint and that the transport route is within the tolerance range.

Found in the wild:

The well-known wild form of the monastery berries is Ribes uva-crispa var. uva-crispa, it has significantly smaller fruits and short, soft and glandless hairs. The cultivated garden gooseberry ( Ribes uva-crispa var. sativum) has glandular bristles or is glabrous. Both varieties are very difficult to distinguish from one another. ¹

Storage:

Harvested gooseberries (Chrosle, Ogrosl, Klosterbeeren) can be kept in the fridge with the stem on for up to a week. Without the stem, the fruit begins to rot more easily. The harvest does not have to be done on the same day for further processing, as gooseberries are climacteric and ripen later. However, freshly harvested ones are recommended for raw consumption, as they taste more aromatic. If the Chrosle ripen for too long, they lose a lot of the fruit acid that people usually like and become bland. Other people, however, find this stage to be just right.

Ingredients - Nutritional value - Calories:

Gooseberries have a calorie content of 44 kcal per 100 g. The vitamin C content is 28 mg/100g, the same as in vegetable spinach. Limes have 29 mg/100g and strawberries 59 mg/100g. Gooseberries also contain traces of B vitamins. ²

Potassium, an essential macronutrient, is contained in gooseberries at 198 mg/100g. To give you a comparison: bananas, which are often touted as a source of potassium, have "only" 358 mg/100g. Really good sources of potassium, on the other hand, are dried herbs, pulses and nuts ( dried parsley : 2683 mg; or white beans : 1795 mg). ²

Gooseberries also contain traces of calcium, manganese and phosphorus. More details about the ingredients can be found in the table below after the text.

The complete ingredients of gooseberries, the coverage of the daily requirement and comparison values with other ingredients can be found in our nutrient tables. In the article Nutrients explained you will get a detailed insight into the topic.

Ratio of omega-6 (LA) to omega-3 fatty acids (ALA) in berries:

Berries and wild berries usually have a very good ratio of LA (linoleic acid) to ALA (alpha-linolenic acid). In general, berries have a low fat content and the amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 are accordingly low. In relation to the total fat content, however, the polyunsaturated fatty acids make up a high proportion.

Our body uses alpha-linolenic acid to produce other omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), which have an anti-inflammatory effect, while linoleic acid produces the pro-inflammatory arachidonic acid. The good ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is another reason why the berries are considered a very healthy food.

Information on individual values of ALA and LA (source: USDA, Önwt, Debinet):

Health aspects - effects:

If you consume enough potassium, it has a diuretic effect. This allows the body to flush out unnecessary toxins. The fiber contained in the seeds and skin of the gooseberry has a digestive effect. The pectin contained in it helps to lower cholesterol levels.

Gooseberries contain many secondary plant substances (plant substances) such as flavonoids, anthocyanins, aromatic and organic acids. These have an antioxidant effect and act against free radicals. Free radicals cause oxidative stress in the body, which is associated with many diseases and premature aging. ^3,4

Test-tube studies have shown that gooseberry extract has a positive effect on type 2 diabetes because it contains alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, which reduce the passage of sugar from the small intestine into the bloodstream. ⁵

Dangers - Intolerances - Side effects:

If you eat too many unripe or not quite ripe gooseberries, they can have a negative effect on your stomach. The acid they contain breaks down as they ripen. Ripe gooseberries are much easier to digest.

Folk medicine - natural healing:

The leaves of the gooseberry are used to treat inflammation in the mouth. In the past, the tea was used to treat dysentery, internal bleeding and menstrual problems. ⁶

Occurrence - Origin:

Gooseberries can be found almost throughout Europe, North Africa, the Caucasus, Asia Minor and the Himalayas. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to determine whether they are the true wild forms or feral forms of the garden gooseberry. Gooseberries have only been native to Central Europe since the 16th century. ⁶ According to Wikipedia, Germany, Russia, Poland and Ukraine were the world's largest gooseberry producers in 2016. ⁷

Growing in the garden:

Gooseberries are available as bushes, spindles or half-standards. Bushes are root-true, trunks are grafted. Depending on the type of training, you have to choose the right place for the plant in the garden. After a few years, bushes can reach a width of up to 2 meters. Therefore, gooseberries need regular pruning in spring.

The plant prefers sunny or partially shaded locations and does not tolerate late frost. The soil should be humusy and rich in nutrients; waterlogging and long dry periods should be avoided. ⁸

Gooseberries normally have thorns (no spines), but there are also varieties that produce thornless plants. This makes harvesting and pruning easier. Gooseberries can propagate themselves vegetatively by means of layering. If you cut off a one-year-old shoot 30 cm long in autumn and put it in a potting soil up to 4 buds, you can transplant it as a cutting the following autumn. For grafted gooseberries, the golden currant ( Ribes aureum) is often used as a rootstock (rooter).

Each color tastes a little different. The red varieties have the most pronounced berry-like aroma. Yellow varieties are often a little larger.

For your own garden, there are mildew-resistant varieties that you should definitely give preference to. If the gooseberry is attacked by American mildew ( Sphaerotheca mors-uvae), all infected shoots must be cut off and destroyed.

General information:

The gooseberry belongs to the gooseberry family (Grossulariaceae) and the genus of currants ( Ribes).

Crosses between gooseberries ( Ribes uva-crispa) and blackcurrants ( Ribes nigrum) produce the jostaberry ( Ribes × nidigrolaria).

Alternative names:

In parts of Austria, the gooseberry is called Ogrosl, Agrasl, Meischgale, Mauchale, Mungatzen. In Switzerland, it is known as Chrosle or Chruselbeeri. In German, depending on the region, it is known as Ägrisch, Druschel, Heckenbeere, Krausbeere, Krusebeere or Krusle. It used to be called Klosterbeere. ⁶

The English name is gooseberry.

Literature - Sources: