This is our golden currant (Ribes odoratum) in full bloom. It's on the north face of a fence and really only gets some afternoon sunlight, so I'm not certain that we'll get fruit. This is the third year for these shrubs, we got them back in 2012 from the Pembina County Soil Conservation District when they weren't more than 6 inch twigs, it's taken a full two years for them to get established.
We have three different kinds of currants (Red Lake and Ben Sarek) on the homestead that we use almost exclusively for jamming. Currants have a large amount of natural pectin and it enables me to make some very tasty blueberry/currant, red raspberry/currant (recipe and directions here), and raspberry/black currant jam with no added pectin. The currants give the jam a bit of a nice tart bite as well.
These flowers will hopefully be tiny currants in a couple of months. We net our red (Red Lake) currants with bird netting but leave the black (Ben Sarek) without a net in case the birds want some. Despite that fact that birds supposedly love currants, they don't take many of the black currants. If you have small fruits - blueberries, raspberries, currants, strawberries, bird netting is a great investment. It's unwieldy and takes a few minutes to cover your precious berries, but worth your time when you go to harvest them later.
1 comment:
All those flowers on your currant bush certainly look promising. Currant jam is my absolute favourite! Like you, I like that tartness.
My red currant is in morning sun/afternoon shade and it does surprisingly well. I don't find the birds take many berries either. Too tart perhaps.
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