The gooseberries are growing again. In Welsh they are called eirin Mair, berries of Mary, or “Mary berry” as my dad says. This year we collected about 200 of them from the bush in our small garden, about the same as last summer in lockdown. The ones we grow are green and have small spiky hairs on them which look strange. They taste really sharp when you eat them. We’ve made quite a few gooseberry fools with yoghurt, cream and icing sugar. It is one of my favourite desserts. I have also made gooseberry ice-cream.

I scratch myself on the thorns of the bush quite a lot when picking them. Once after I did that, I wrote a short story about gooseberries causing an illness around the world when you ate them. Scientists later find a cure which involves getting a deep scratch from the gooseberry bush thorns. Everyone got cured, but it took a long time for people to queue at the various locations where we have gooseberry bushes.
Anwen, 8