malaec. I make red currant jelly every year. Jelly won't set without heat. Heat up the currants with a little water until the juice runs. Pour the berries into a clean jelly bag, old pillow case or muslin square and hang over a bowl over night. Don't be tempted to push or squeeze the pulp or the jelly will be cloudy. Measure the juice. For every pint of juice add a pound of sugar. Bring to the boil until setting point is reached. Being a lackadaisical, germ-laden European I then pour the jelly into sterilized jars, put a lid on and stick it on a shelf. The people on the Harvest Forum would be horrified so you'd better ask over there for the safe, hygienic US way of canning jams and jellies. Here is a link that might be useful: Harvest Forum

Hands down, the native golden currant (Ribes aureum) is the best tasting currant that I've tried. I'm not really a fan of black currants for fresh eating, and red and pink ones are good, but still a bit puckery right off the bush. I've been harvesting these native gems the last few days, and they are wonderful. They can be much larger, approaching the size of your average gooseberry, come in black, red, orange, and gold when ripe (often on the same bush), and are produced in abundance on very large (to over 10 feet tall in some cases) drought tolerant, fast-growing shrubs. Hard to beat... The catch? Ribes aureum has only one recognized cultivar, which is just a fruiting ornamental variety, so you don't know exactly what you're getting in a particular plant. This currant is not very abundant in the wild, is not grown commercially for fruit, and is used almost exclusively for landscaping. I imagine that very few people grow it in garden situations, and fewer still take advantage of the berries. Boy, are people missing out!

With few exceptions I have grown all above, mainly for taste exhibitions at horticultural associations. None of them came close to the great reds/pinks. I even prefer some yellows like Aunt Gertie Gold to the darker skinned varieties. Paul Robeson is hyped by Laurel's Heirloom Tomatoes, probably because nobody else sells this variety as transplants. I dislike the practise of mail order companies to hype a unique variety and hope that customers order other seeds/plants as well. The flavor of Paul Robeson is quite good for a darker skinned variety but the plants quickly succumb to disease and the yield rarely exceeds a few tomatoes. This has been noticed both on a professional and hobby gardener scale, even with transplants bought from Laurel. Needless to say there are Laurel fans in here that will dispute this but there is no doubt in my mind that for whatever reason Paul Robeson's performance is miserable.

90 days is beyond my comfort zone for DTM. I'm the opposite of Nick in that everything I grow takes longer than advertised. I have two late season varieties this year though. Aunt Ruby's German Green and Nebraska Wedding. Nebraska is the one that turned me on to orange tomatoes a couple years ago, and I still count it as one of the best tasting tomatoes i have ever grown, but its not a reliable performer. Neither it nor German Green have shown any sign of giving me a time tomato yet and already the other morning it was 44° and it's snowing on Pike's Peak as of yesterday. Last year would have been a good one for late season tomatoes, I remember days in the 80's into October. This year I don't think we'll be so lucky. Anyways only one tomato to grow on a desert island? Black Sea Man and Orange Blossom are good producers but taste is nothing to write home about. Nebraska tastes great but miserable producer. Nineveh is a decent producer but the fruit size shrinks dramatically after each tomato that is picked I've started to notice. Probably one of the best balance between yield and taste I have yet run across is better boy so that would probably be the one I pick.