The Newick Leveller on the brink of extinction

With reference to a blog entry on the 3rd of May, before all the Olympics hoopla, I mentioned about a gooseberry species. Do you remember? Please find below an update on the plant and Newick's chance of saving the plant from the brink of extinction.

Five years ago, we realised that the Newick Leveller, a dessert gooseberry, was verging on extinction. On the 12th of July 2012, Newick Village held our first Leveller and Gooseberry competition. It was a great success. Over 40 people attended and Tony Turk, our village historian, told the story of the Leveller and how it had dominated the economy of the village with thousands of boxes of graded Levellers being sent, first by horse and cart, then by train, and finally by lorry to markets in Brighton, Covent Garden and beyond.

The last growers with some Leveller bushes produced several punnets of superb fruit. Many who attended had spent hours picking Levellers; nearly the whole village, school children included, were employed picking.  Many memories were retold, as everybody ate Levellers and watched a restored gooseberry grader at work, sorting the crop into five grades from “super” to specs” and “trash”.  Levellers have quite a tough skin, so they travel well; they are best eaten in the garden, the insides sucked out and the skins thrown into the flower beds to rot. There were stories of the girls in the Newick jam factory who did just that, but the skins went into the jam – but we don’t talk about that. What we were reminded of, is that the Leveller is simply delicious. 

Personally, I was reminded of the Newick Levellers’ weakness.  The Leveller is prone to mildew, so mine was sprayed (three times), the fruit was thinned to allow the remainder to grow enormous; the race for glory was on. One morning, two weeks before the show, in its prime, my Leveller died.  All the leaves fell, the fruit shriveled, four years nurture no more.  

  

Levellers, they do that; could make you swear. 

Paddy Cumberlege 

August 2012

Post script - the gooseberries are even mentioned in a food column for the South East on the UKTV website and another website provides information on all varieties of gooseberries.