Can you fall in love with a plant based on its name?
I've fallen in love with an outlaw.
I fell in love with the plant "Pixwell Gooseberry," because it sounded like the name of a private eye in an old-time radio show. "Pixwell Gooseberry, Private Eye."
I imagined he had a society girlfriend, who would say things like, "Oh, Pixie! Another case?"
Anyway. But then I found that I can never grow Pixie in my narrow garden. He's an outlaw in Massachusetts. Something about pine blight. No mailorder company will ship here, and I won't go on the black market.
Can someone explain Pixwell Gooseberry is an outlaw in Massachusetts?
Outlaw gooseberry?
After one too many hard boiled cases he turned crooked. Vergil Boysenberry is on his tale.
They have a black market for gooseberries?
Although this cultivar is also resistant to white pine blister rust, it is illegal to plant it in specified areas of some states (particularly in the Northeast and Northwest) where bans on Ribes species are still in force to protect large stands of white pines (certain Ribes plants are an alternate host for the disease). Missouri has no restrictions on Ribes plants.
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?Code=N400
PH
http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/YGLNews/YGLN-Mar0102.html
Scroll down near the bottom to find info on why pine and the gooseberry have problems near each other from the university of Minnesota
I miss the tasty red-currant pies my granny would make. And the gooseberry pies my dad would bring home from the pie shop on Friday nights.
I never understood why we seldom saw these treats in modern markets 'til I found out a few years ago about the 'ban' on growing ribes in many states because of the blister rust in the pine trees. Ribes really got the reputation as the 'bad guys' whether deserved or not.
Now it's hard to tell from googling if the ribes actually are alternate hosts for the Blister Rust, or just 'thought to be'... In any case, it looks like in Michigan it is still a No-No to plant them but other states like Mass. seem ambivalent.
Massachusetts' Bureau of Farm Products and Plant Industries regulates ribes by townships and Ribes spp. is prohibited in many places. They say contact the Bureau of Farm Products & Plant Industries (617-727-3020 x 124) for a list of towns where they are available. Maybe yours is one of them. (It looks like black currants are absolutely verboten in Mass.)
http://asktheberryman.com/planting_guide/ribes_guide.html
The outlaw heritage of the ribes has given them a rough time but some say they're making a comeback. I would love it if some beautiful red currants would show up at the farmer's market.
So that explains why there are no black currants here - and why dried black currants are treated like some rare, exotic fruit. In BC, dried black currants can be bought anywhere.
Thanks, all, for the information on why gooseberries are outlawed here.
It seems hardly fair, to discriminate against gooseberries in favor of pine trees. Have you ever had a pine tree pie? Ugh.
Exactly!
Does no one remember the eating fad of the seventies. The poster child was Ewell(sp?) GIbbons of Grape Nut Fame? Well, anyway, he taught me to eat the inner bark of white pine if you ever feel the need.
Yum. Kinda in the same league with Spruce gum. And DON'T tell me you've never stepped right up to a Spruce and cut off a big hank. Those things'll last you for months if you put 'em on the night stand before you go to sleep.
Weather, you should just go to the Fruit Market in Milton in the summer. They'll probably have your gooseberries.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
A woodchuck friend of mine has similar tastes.
But, you do not understand! Sauteed....in, em....., a mushroom and dulse reduction, the cambium takes on a fresh, sparkling quality! Pair that with rock lichen braised in sumac stock and you have a heart healthy meal!!!!
Ye of little faith and experience, come!, join the rest......chew the sap, eat the gooseberry. We all have a life ahead of us!!!
As long as you eat it first.
Answering the first post in the thread - I fell in love with Halle Berry.
Is Halle your first choice for wife #2 ?
I was a vegetarian for a long time.
When I first decided to rejoin society, I went down to the shore with some friends, Pabst Blue Ribbon and lemons in hand. We ripped open sea urchins and squirted then with lemon. Suck 'em up wriggling.......
Once I decided to turn back to being an omnivore, I never looked back :)
I've eaten all of them; just never in that preparation. Come on up. My treat!
Then we'll eat pizza and wash it all down with something palatable.
Sea Urchin - mmmmmm - my favorite kind of sushi with or without a quail egg.
You can come too, Yankee.
Seandor - woman #2, not wife. She is one of many possibilities I am considering. We're about the same age too.
Watersedge, you made me laugh!
What wine pairs well with cambium??
A cambernet, of course.
Awful!
As I remember, Ewell Gibbons died young...
I dunno. Everyone over 30 in the seventies looked to be about 80.
Sounds like the new math! I believe Gibbons died from intestine strangulation brought on by sprouting nut / fruit seeds.
This message was edited Apr 19, 2007 10:18 PM
I guess he did die in his early sixties but I think it was of natural causes. Get it? "natural" causes? lolololololololol
You guys! LOL