Blackcurrants for dessert

My nephew told me recently that we evolved to see colour so that we can find ripe berries.

I have two blackcurrant bushes. One has juicy berries, the other has larger but less juicy fruit. I’m hoping the rain we’re having will help to hydrate them.

Yesterday seemed a good time to pick the berries on the first bush near the chicken run. The chooks hovered about, waiting for stray ones to drop. Dora pecked at my toes and ankles if she thought I was being less than generous with my offerings.

The berries weighed in at over 500 grams – as they did last season, I see from a January post.

Half of this was plenty for one pie.

So I made two, using the Gooseberry Shortcake recipe from an ancient Edmonds Cookbook. (I couldn’t find any berries on the gooseberry bushes this year – but I did see Dora eating one… Fortunately, the blackcurrant canes are too high for them to reach and the birds don’t seem to eat them. The blackbirds ate my blueberries, however.)

Delicious for dessert, with icing sugar and a choice of cream or yoghurt.

Eating fruit and vegetables fresh, straight from the garden, is the best thing about this time of year. We had the first six runner beans this week and they were fresh and delicious. The broad beans, sadly, are done. I’m picking rainbow chard and small silver beet, parsley and garlic chives for salads – all cut up with herb scissors, with goat’s cheese feta, fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives, and a sprinkle of toasted seeds. Yum!