When Do Gooseberries Ripen?

Question

I need to know in what month gooseberries ripen in northern Indiana. I’m writing a book set in the early 1900s and I want the cook to make a gooseberry pie, but the time is early July and I don’t know if they’d be ripe yet. If it matters, the summer has been extremely hot, after an extremely cold winter.

Answer 1

The gooseberry bushes are one of the few bushes growing berries that are harvested just before peak ripeness. Most are picked when they are green just before turning reddish-brown, which is when they become completely ripe. Normally harvesting occurs between July and August.