ABSTRACT
The northern gooseberry is native to the southern portion of central and eastern Canada and the adjacent areas of the United States. The species has been recorded in various habitats, including rocky woods and cliffs, coastal thickets and heathlands, river banks, bogs, clearings, cedar and tamarack swamps, and in wet woods and forests. Gooseberries seem not to have been mentioned by early Greek and Roman writers. These fruits were first recorded in a thirteenth century document that noted they were cultivated in Europe. By the seventeenth century, red-, green-, and dark-fruited varieties were described. In the eighteenth century, “gooseberry clubs” were established in Britain with the goal of giving prizes for the heaviest fruit. Gooseberries can be eaten fresh—with sugar, or added to fruit salads. They make very fine jellies, jams, preserves, sauces, syrups, puddings, chutneys, and sorbets. Gooseberries have been thought to have curative properties.
