The Leveller is a variety of dessert gooseberry- you eat them raw. Large, yellow when ripe and delicious. The skins, however, are a bit tough so it is best to suck out the middle and chuck the skins over the fence. Into the 1960's, up to 3,000 12 Ib (5.4 kg) boxes were produced daily from the area around the mid-Sussex village of Newick to be distributed nationwide in season.
Newick's well-drained sandy soils were ideal for grwoing Levellers but other soft fruit and green gooseberries, cooking and jam varieties, spread the harvesting season, employed nearly the whole village; men, women and children.
The collapse in the Leveller production was quite sudden. The holdings were small, the growers were old, then a huge block of market garden was sold for housing; pension money for ageing growers. Soft fruit growing transferred to larger holdings and the Leveller was nearly lost in the move. Perhaps, to, the shy Saxon people of Newick failed to adapt. Everyone preferred picking without the thorns of a gooseberry bush.
Five years ago, we found that only a few newick Leveller bushes survived. It is not really a Newick variety, but was grown almost exclusively in the area; generations of Newick people had been torn and scratched by Leveller picking, so it became their own.
It is not easy to grow either. Bushes suddenly die for no reason, and it suffers from mildew. One old market gardener said to me, "Sometime the Levellers were sent to market quite white because we sprayed the bushes with white lead and arsenic". However, as it was apparent that this fruit would disappear, we started a campaign, planted cuttings, distributed bushes around the village, found a competition cup for the finest Levellers - won outright by a local grower 30 years ago. If the frost holds off, we will hold our first competition for Newick Levellers for a generation in July 2012. One day, the Leveller will be back nationwide, adored and the picking mechansied. Too good to be lost.
Has anyone got a picture of this gooseberry or the bush?
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