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  • From: "Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>
  • To: "NAFEX discussion list (E-mail)" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Forgotten black currants are wonderful fruit (Providence Journal)
  • Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 14:50:04 -0600

This is the story from the Providence (R.I.) Journal that some of you had
difficulty accessing. -- Sam Brungardt, St. Paul, Minn. (USDA Zone 4b)
----------------------------------------
Forgotten black currants are wonderful fruit
01:00 AM EST on Sunday, February 29, 2004
BY LEE REICH
Associated Press
Black currant fruits are "of a stinking and somewhat loathing savour, the
leaves also are not without the stinking smell," wrote herbalist John Gerard
in his famous Herball more than 350 years ago. Many people disagree, not only
relishing the fruit but also enjoying the aroma of the leaves.
In fact, since Gerard's time, Europeans have grown extremely fond of the
fruit. Usually, the fruits are cooked up into a delectable jam or squeezed to
make a rich-tasting juice. Black gumdrops, jellybeans and other candies are
often this flavorful fruit, not the licorice flavoring Americans are
accustomed to.
In the Bordeaux region of France, black currant fruits are made into the
liqueur cassis. Black currants are extremely high in vitamin C, and even
before vitamins were known, the fruits were valued for their soothing effect
on sore throats.
Few people in the United States grow black currants because of a disease that
hitchhiked here about a hundred years ago on some pine trees from Ireland.
That disease -- white pine blister rust -- needs two different host plants, a
white pine and a susceptible sort of currant or gooseberry. To keep this
disease from threatening the valuable white pine timber crop, the federal
government banned the planting of currants and gooseberries. The ban was not
very effective, so was lifted in 1966 and put under state mandate, but by
then Americans had forgotten these wonderful fruits.
Black currant is generally susceptible to rust, but thanks to Canadian fruit
breeders, a few rust-immune varieties now exist. These varieties are the only
ones still permissible to plant in many areas of the United States, and the
best of these varieties is one called "Consort."
Besides good fruit and pleasant aroma, black currants have other qualities to
recommend their planting. Deer evidently concur with Gerard about the aroma,
because they rarely nibble the plants. Insects, diseases, even birds,
similarly keep their distance. The only care you need give this plant is to
cut stems that bore fruit to ground level.
Black currant is a handsome bush, with lush, forest-green leaves that unfurl
very early in the season and hang onto the upright stems well into autumn. No
need to choose a site in full sun, as you must with most other fruits,
because black currant will grow and fruit well in sun or part shade. One
thing NOT to expect from a black currant bush are "black currants" such as
you buy in a box. Those are dried Black Corinth grapes, a small grape whose
Corinth changed to "currant."
Online at:
<http://www.projo.com/garden/content/projo_20040229_curr29x.21112a.html>






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