Of course it’s great to be able to plant all the vegetables and fruits we want and love to eat, but discovering what is already there, what someone planted long ago, or what has managed to find a home and survived on the działka for years without any human intervention, is magical. Today Wojtek and I identified a couple of gooseberry bushes (Agrest) growing under the apple tree. You can see a thorn under the berry in this picture and the shape of the leaves.

It took us a while to find these berries, because they are still less than 1 cm (1/2 in) in diameter. The leaves look a lot like Blackcurrent and other current bushes (Porzeczka). Gooseberries can be sweet or sour. We’ll have to wait and see. Look at the little hairs on the berry and stem.

One thing I love about the Polish wiki is the illustrations someone is putting up for plants. They are obviously from an old German text–I would love to have that book. Very good resolution. Check it out if you’re looking for old illustrations of edibles. The details in these drawings are superb. Here is one for the Gooseberry (slighter smaller than the one on Wikipediea).