I recently saw a few boxes of red currants for sale at a local farm stand. I mentioned it to my dad saying that I had not seen red currants since the ones I had seen as a child on my grandmother's bushes. My dad, who is 86, told me that his mother was very upset when the government sent someone to dig them up. Does anyone know the history on this? Why did the plants have to be destroyed? My dad did not remember.
Red Currant
Hi marcha, I had heard something about this many years ago but couldn't quite remember. Went searching myself and found this article. They thought it spread a fungus but it really did not and the ban was finally lifted. Hope you find this interesting. http://www.oldhousejournal.net/magazine/2004/aug/A_Little_Bite_of_History.lasso
Fascinating ngam. Marcha, my best friend lives in Brattleboro. Her name is Dana Wigdor. She's a painter. Do you know her? I know the town is small, but not so small that you would know everyone, but it's a chance.
Harper
Thank you, ngam. This is great! We had speculated that they must have been thought responsible for spreading some kind of damage to agriculture. There were very few currants for me to discover as a child and I wonder if those were just a vestige of the old plants that escaped the spade. Since my dad was born in 1921, I am not sure if he really remembers the plants being removed or just hearing his mother mourning their loss at a later date.
Sorry, Sofonisba, I do not know Dana. But if she exhibits locally perhaps I will run across her work one of these days.
She does exhibit locally. Last year she had a show at the Windham Gallery. I'll see if I can find more info for you.