While out shopping with Elly last week, I was browsing while she gathered some foodie items she wanted. Being away from home, and hoping she & George would feed me, 😉 I was content to browse.
My eye landed on a display of some interestingly looking preserves. Colours ranged from orange, through reds to dark blueberry and a light green.
The blueberry jam looked tempting and not one I often come across in my neck of the woods. Playing the “Will I? Won’t I?” game, I overheard a gentleman ask his female companion about the contents of the green jars.
“Gooseberry!” I offered, always open to begin a conversation with strangers.
“Oh good! I love gooseberry jam” He replied. “But you don’t often see it these days”.
“I can tell you why”, I said judging him to be about five or six years my junior.
At this stage his companion drew closer to listen to our chat.
“When I was a young child, our parents told us we were all found under a gooseberry bush. We did have a couple of gooseberry bushes at the end of the Garden. Funnily enough, they were removed after my sister, our baby was born!”
“SO WERE WE”! The couple chorused and laughed.
“Yes, ours were removed after my brother was born”. He said.
They agreed with me that you seldom see gooseberry bushes these days. With that he picked a jar of gooseberry jam from the shelf and added it to his basket.
My girl friend, before my marriage, had a gooseberry who insisted on coming with us on our dates. I use the term in this context –
“A single person (or person without their significant other present) who goes somewhere with a couple. In turn usually making it awkward for both the couple and themselves when the couple wants to do things such as making out.”
I could have easily turned her into a jam.
Cute story! Glad you are spending time with your daughter.
Ramana – I am familiar with the term ‘Playing gooseberry’ – a game I was not comfortable in playing. Thankfully chaperones were not required when I was growing up.
gigi – I am home again, but we did have fun.
I couldn’t comment here for a few days, GM, your blog had bits missing or nothing at all. Weird.
Lovely story, I hated topping and tailing the gooseberries from our garden, it took forever and then to “top” it off, I hated gooseberry jam 😀
XO
WWW
WWW – Since I came back from Dublin, I had problems myself with posting and editing. I was ready for the hills. I discovered that while things looked fine in Mozilla, but not in IE, my hosting company was also experiencing problems. I am hoping it is all sorted now.
As for goosegob jam, it was my least favourite of all the jams, it was next to crab apple if it had cloves in. I never never managed to overcome my dislike of cloves.
Not a gooseberry jam fan myself. I’m a steady customer of blackberry jam. On muffins. Mmmm. Kind of fun the conversations that happen with our fellow grocery shoppers.
Gooseberry jam was a favorite of my granny’s, not me. Give me a jar of Olallieberry jam…. Yum, and Olallieberry pie is wonderous.
Celia – I would prefer blackcurrant jam to blackberry, even if the roads around me provide a plentiful harvest free gratis, in the Autumn.
Brighid – I remember Granny having a half full pot of gooseberry jam at the back of the cupboard. I think I was the only person that ever asked her for jam to put on my bread, everyone else used butter. I remember one occasion she scraped off a layer of mould and handed the rest of it! Can you imagine that happening today? I am still here to tell the tale.
I’ve no experience with gooseberries or their jams. But you’re the kind of stranger in the food store I like to bump up against.
When I was a kid, we had a lot of fruit bushes in the garden but no gooseberry bushes. But then, my parents might have removed them before we started looking for babies under them. I’m not sure that I’ve ever tasted gooseberry jam….
By “we” I mean my sister and I.
Alice – I often brokered a conversation in the supermarket, either to share knowledge, or ask advice from another customer. If someone does not wish to share, I move on, no hard cheese.
Nick – We had ten apple trees and they lasted longer than the goosegob bushes. I knew you meant your sister and not Jenny.
I’m not sure I’ve ever had Gooseberry Jam. But I enjoyed this tale.
Nancy – A true story and the evidence can be found here.