North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Matt Demmon <mdemmon@gmail.com>]

Excellent work on the ribes info! Thanks. I've not tasted any of the
Ben sereis to compare, but I have both Consort and Titania and have
tasted Minaj Smyrnu (sp?)

For fresh eating, I would rate Consort as totally inedible, really
strong foxy (catpiss?) taste. Most people I give it to make a horrible
face and spit it out. I can eat it but I don't like to! M.S. was OK as
I remember, and Titania is quite good fresh. Sweeter and milder but
still tangy. I'm not sure how this translates into cooked flavor, it
could be that Consort would be best in jam or sauce!

-matt se MI z5

On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Kieran &/or Donna
<holycow@frontiernet.net> wrote:

>    The oft reviled Canadian black currant releases Consort, Crusader and
> that other one have been crossed to European black currants to produce Ben
> Lomand, now the most widely planted black currant in Europe for juice, and
> others in the Scottish "Ben" series.  (Ben meaning mountain.)  Resistance
> varies, I hope in a year or two there are more of these available.  Titania
> doesn't sound all that great to me, has anyone tasted it?
>
> I put in my order to Whitman Farms:
>
> 2 Hinomaki Yellow (and they are little bitty horizontal guys, nothing like
> the others!)
> 1 Hinomaki Red
> 1 amish Red
> 1 Crandall currant
> 1 Ben Lomand
> 1 Ben Sarek
> 1 Black Down
>
> With shipping they ran $10 each.  I was idly wondering if I might want to
> change my order when the plants suddenly arrived, 8 days after I dropped my
> check in the mail!  It must have been their first shipping day, as there
> were still leaves on some of the plants.  I put the little H yellows right
> in the garden in the rose row, plenty of thorns for company there, and the
> Crandall down at the end of the blueberry row as it sounds like it might
> come in so late it could be netted with them.  The others are in pots while
> I study my compass and the tree line for the black currants to be shaded in
> the afternoon.  This is the first time I've seen what the thorns on
> gooseberries are normally like.  When I told my husband that the local plant
> I collected is the lowest of the low flavorwise and told him the name, he
> exclaimed, "Pigswill?  What kind of name is that?!"  I said, "Pixwell,
> Pixwell, because it doesn't have many thorns."  But it will be called
> Pigswill in this household forever more.  I know that's what it is because
> the fruit starts out sour, then goes completely insipid when it's ripe.
> Never seems to have any other flavor.  I got out this past sunny weekend,
> yes, sunshine, I'd forgotten what it was like, and dug out a 4 young mimosa
> trees and all kinds of weeds that were competing, and found about 5 rooted
> sprouts around the edges of my Pigswill plant.  Next some phosphate, and
> Rodale press said that Ribes do better without commercial fertilizer so I'll
> just give it some rock dust and a speck of fertilizer next spring.  The
> plant's really big enough, I'd just like it to crop better till my new
> plants kick in.
>    I think the info on new Ribes introductions is worth getting into Pomona
> for the winter issue, so that people have time to order for spring.  Any
> further comments you'd like to see included?    Donna
>
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-- 
-matt demmon