A Gardener’s Miscellany
This week it’s: Red, black, white currants
Facts about a flavoursome fruit collective
THE old joke goes: ‘What’s black, white and red all over?’ Answer: A newspaper, of course! (For ‘red’ read ‘read’)! This leads me on, beautifully, to this week’s subject of black, white and red…currants. These soft fruits are the mainstay of many an allotment and kitchen garden. The beginner gardener might think that they are all the same kind of plant, just with different coloured berries – not a bit of it!
Despite all being types of ribes (the genus name for the currant), the reds and whites grow and perform very differently to the blacks. Let’s take a look at some of the stories surrounding them.
■ All currants are members of the gooseberry family, Grossulariaceae.
Differences between the three fruits
BLACKCURRANTS have been growing, wild or cultivated, in Britain since the 1600s, when they were thought to have many medicinal qualities.
In 1826, the Horticultural Society (before it became. However, it wasn’t until around the 1930s, that we really got a taste for them.
