NOVEL ATTEMPTS by ashraya gupta

When I was younger, I went through a period of reading every single Redwall book I could find. Redwall was/is a fantasy series, authored by Brian Jacques, an endearing British man. My brother had the good fortune to meet Jacques, since one of our English teachers in middle school knew him. Unfortunately, he only visited on alternate years and I missed my chance. I didn’t get to hear what exactly inspired Jacques to invent a Medieval world populated by animals, or thank him for doing it.

The series is a kind of amalgam of Wind in the Willows and the Knights of the Round Table. Think Watership Down meets Ivanhoe.

Central to the books is Redwall Abbey, essentially a rodent monastery. Here, the noblest of mice would find respite, a haven from the savagery of the world around them. They would read illuminated manuscripts, meditate, and most importantly, eat. Feasts at Redwall were epic. Scones of acorn flour served with sweet meadowcream, rich raspberry tarts, dandelion wine—these mice lived the life.

He sat with Rose between her parents, speechless at the sight of the abundant tables. Flowers trailed everywhere, from the rafters, walls, windows and table edges. Roses, lilies, vines and blossoms festooned the whole place, twining around the urns of strawberry cordial, dandelion and burdock cup, mint and lavender water, chestnut ale, blackcurrant wine and cider. Platters and trays were heaped high with salads, cheeses, breads and pasties whose contents he could only guess at. Babies and little ones seated on their parents’ laps gazed longingly at the array of trifles, flans, puddings, pies and tartlets, each with its honey-covered contents peeking through mounds of cream.

That’s a passage from Martin the Warrior, one of my favorites. Almost painful to read, I know.

I was always particularly enamored of the blackcurrant wine, since blackcurrants, as most of the world knows, are the most delicious berries in existence. Raspberries are a close second. Strawberries are always dependable. But blackcurrants—they’re something else.

Blackcurrants are a species of ribes berry. Most berries are in the family Rosaceae, which as the name suggests, also includes roses. Blackcurrants, along with red currants and gooseberries, used to belong to the Saxifragaceae family (which includes hydrangeas) until the 1980s, when taxonomists decided they deserved their own family, Grossulariaceae.

Anyway, all of that isn’t as important or as interesting as blackcurrants themselves and all their tasty potential. Anyone in England or the vast majority of the European continent and the former British colonies is well aware of just how delicious these berries are. You’ll find blackcurrant jam, candies, and yes, wine. There’s also Ribena, a syrupy, blackcurrant concentrate, which is diluted with water or soda. There are some haters, don’t trust them. Personally, I was always a fan of blackcurrant-flavored Fruitella, a chewable candy similar to Starburst. I still insist that my parents stock up on these in the duty-free when flying back from India.

So why are blackcurrants largely unknown in America? Why are blackcurrant preserves absent from American grocery stores and yet found in the Swedish food market at IKEA? Short-answer: the lumber industry.

A few years into the 20th century, American farmers and foresters found that their white pine trees were suffering from “blister rust”, a kind of parasitic fungus believed to be carried by blackcurrants and gooseberries. In 1911, a meeting of New York State officials and representatives of forestry interests determined that the best solution was to ban blackcurrants. Gooseberries and red currants received a more lenient sentence: they just had to be kept at a good distance from white pines.

Other states followed suit and so it went until March 3rd, 2003. On that historic day, Governor Pataki ushered in a new era of New York State agriculture, or a return to its glorious ribes-rich past. Bill Number S2592 lifted the ban, and five years later, we have this: Currant C, a blackcurrant juice beverage produced just a little ways upstate in Hudson Valley.

With the popularity of hip beverages like Pom and Kombucha, I’m hoping Currant C will soon be widely available, delicious and over-priced. And I’ll be stocking up on blackcurrant jam at the next farmer’s market—or heading to the new IKEA in Brooklyn.

Tags:   Blackcurrants · Brian Jacques · Forgotten · IKEA · New York State · Redwall1 Comment