Mildly Interesting

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99.9% of Americans have never tasted a Blackcurrant or Gooseberry. For nearly a century, the US government conducted a war on currants and gooseberries. The History Guy YT (www.youtube.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I remember my Grandmother having Gooseberry in her garden and joking that they would get her in more trouble than the still she ran on her property.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

TLDW: A fungus called "white pine blister rust" can only pollinate in the presence of white pine trees and "ribes" (pronounced rye-bees), which is what currants and gooseberries are. The lumber was deemed far more valuable so in order to save it from the spread of the fungus, cultivation of ribes was outlawed and the US Government enacted a large scale eradication.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Thank you. And TIL why ribeana is called ribeana.

It seems mad to me that the US essentially banned a food group so they could make money by cutting down trees. Why didn’t they follow the lead of Europe and just focus on reforestation and breading genetically immune pine trees?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So that's why it's called Ribena! Ribena is a blackcurrant juice that's commonly sold in the UK.