Allotment Tales: Worcesterberry anyone?

Thirty years ago, dropping in on some friends who had been called away, I found an explanation for their unexpected absence pinned to the front door, followed by a suggestion that I should "help myself to the Worcesterberries".

Hunting in their garden, ignoring all those wise words about not eating things you don't recognise, I found a hedge smothered with dark purple berries a bit bigger than blackcurrants which tasted pretty good.

Returning south, I asked Dobbies, then a modest little enterprise, of the availability of Worcesterberries and was told that they were probably something which grew in the south of England. I told them they flourished on high ground in the Highlands. They remained unconvinced. Instead, I bought a plant by mail order and began my long acquaintance with the joys of this fruit.

Their selling point for me is that they ripen after the main berry crops of strawberries and raspberries, filling the gap until the autumn fruits take over.

Although the fruit resembles a large blackcurrant, it grows on bushes with leaves like a gooseberry. Often mistaken for a hybrid, it is a separate species, ribes divaricatum, originally from North America. It is rarely affected by frost as it flowers in late spring. Occasionally the gooseberry sawfly makes a meal of the leaves, but the bush always recovers.

My friend Ingrid grows them on an exposed patch close to the sea in the far northwest of Scotland so quite plainly it doesn't mind cold or wind. I have it at the back of my allotment under trees, so some shade is not a problem either. It grows vigorously with long arching branches, but can be kept in check with winter pruning. It roots easily from cuttings. Some people to whom I have given them are put off by its really jaggy thorns.

I have to cover the bushes with netting as blackbirds perform suicide missions to get at them, but in areas where blackbirds are scarce, this is unnecessary.

They can be eaten straight from the bush, but are delicious as a jam. They don't need any topping and tailing. Best of all is my husband's culinary tour de force, a Worcesterberry tart, which he makes from the frozen purple berries in midwinter.