North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

I guess I didn't consider the second part of the question.  I haven't heard 
of too many people even on this group doing much with currants or 
gooseberries in the south.  they don't like the heat.  (I'm saying this 
partly to bring the defenders out of the woodwork.)  That said, Richard 
Moyer mentioned that his gooseberries came through the freeze.  I can't see 
that our one bush has anything on it.  It was a sprout taken from a fruiting 
bush in town.  I haven't done anything for it, never have even fertilized 
it, and it does make a few berries most years.  And I met this little old 
lady in east TN who told me about the horrors of gooseberry picking.  Her 
mother grew them for a cash crop, and so once a year she sent the kids out 
to pick them while they were green.  No gloves, and they had to pick enough 
bushels to load up the wagon to take it to the market.  Green is the way 
gooseberries were traditionally sold in England too, hard and sour and easy 
to transport.  But apparently this TN family let the remainder ripen for 
their own use.  So we know there are some varieties that are suited for the 
south, though I don't know about as far south as you are.  What's your 
elevation?  The lower it is, the further "south" you are.  I'm at 1,000 ft, 
but I could go about 100 miles "north" by going 15 miles east, 1,000 ft 
higher.  Donna