I grow gooseberries down my allotment for puddings - and jam in a good year. They aren't in any shops these days, so it is grow them or have none.
This year I both grew them and have none! Not the first time they have disappeared. The bushes were laden with almost ripe, plump goosegogs earlier in the week but when I checked today to see if I should bring down a container to harvest them on my next visit I couldn't find a single gooseberry.
It's not birds. There wasn't a single damaged or dropped gooseberry and the bushes are a thorny tangle, too dense for the birds which could take them to penetrate. Birds could only get a few from the top.
I already dug out my blackcurrant bushes last year to use the space for something else after every bush was stripped two years running. All that work and time down there weeding and watering and some frigging tea leaf gets the lot.
Father's Day Sunday — nobody makes cards for this type of dad
