"And what are these things?"

The woman's question, at the North Side Farmers Market this past Friday, made me smile.

But I already was smiling, because I'd just purchased from the Sand Hill Berries stand an entire flat of the things:

Gooseberries.

They're my favorite fruit, in great part because they're relatively rare.

They're also gorgeous and delicious. Roughly the size of grapes, they range in color from a brilliant green to a pale yellow to pink to purple. They can be fabulously tart, which makes for great tarts and pies that pair with whipped cream in a way that makes you think it was invented just for them. And the sweeter kinds you can eat out of hand. They share a distinctive gooseberry taste.

I always try to buy a flat or two when they're in season, if I don't forget, because the season is oh-so-short. And the season here is now.

"Usually around the Fourth of July," says Susan Lynn of Sand Hill Berries, the well-known farm near Mt. Pleasant in Westmoreland County that is one of the few commercial growers I've found, and one of the biggest in the eastern side of the country. You can find them and their berries at farmers markets throughout the region, and sometimes the gooseberries also show up at local specialty stores, though most of them are wholesaled and head to the East Coast.

Susan and her sister Amy Schilling and their husbands grow 10 varieties of gooseberries, but there are many more. "Not as many as apples," Susan says, "but lots."

How come more of us aren't familiar with them?

It depends on where you were born. Europeans know gooseberries (the name may be a corruption of the Dutch kruisbes, which means "cross-berry."). In fact, according to Penn State University, in Europe in the 1800s there were more than 700 varieties that were cultivated, and cult worshipped, by "gooseberry clubs."

North America also has its own native types of this fruit, which belong to the Ribes genus along with currants.

Alas, because some Ribes varieties played host to white pine blister rust, a disease that threatened extremely valuable timber, growing of Ribes was banned in many places in the United States until 1966. The reintroduction of plants from Europe was marked by long quarantines and other setbacks. As Susan puts it, "They had a number of hard knocks."

By the time the Schillings were starting Sand Hill Berries in the mid 1980s, some people might have remembered a bush at their grandmother's house or something, but most young people didn't know them. Still, Susan's husband, Richard Lynn, wanted to grow gooseberries, believing them to be ripe for a comeback.

And slowly but surely, she says, more and more people are specifically asking for them and red and black currants, in addition to Sand Hill's famous raspberries.

"Some people think they're a little too sour," she says. "But most people like the amount of sour and sweet.'

If you'd like to try some, you only have until July 20 or so before all theirs are picked.

Meanwhile, Susan reports that they're freezing lots of them to make a gooseberry wine -- probably a sparkling wine -- at the Sand Hill winery for which they're only awaiting their federal license.

If you do manage to get your hands on some fresh gooseberries, you might want to try making a tart tart, like the one here.

Don't forget the whipped cream.

GOOSEBERRY TART

PG TESTED

The original version of this recipe called for removing the tops and tails (spent flowers) of the berries, but I never do and agree with Sand Hill Berries' Susan Schilling, who quips that that's just "busy work for English school children."

For the pastry:

• 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  
• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• Pinch salt
  
• 10 tablespoons cold non-salted butter, cut into pieces

For the filling:

• 3 tablespoons of jam (gooseberry, currant or other)
  
• 3 cups gooseberries (you can top and tail them, but you don't have to)
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• Whipped cream for garnish

For the pastry:

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Add butter pieces, stir and use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the butter into the flour until it resembles a course meal.

Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of cold water, stirring dough with a fork until it holds together. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic or wax paper, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch round, then ease into a 10-inch fluted, false-bottom tart pan and flute the rim.

For the filling:

Brush bottom of pastry with jam, then fill with gooseberries. Sprinkle sugar over gooseberries.

Bake tart for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 degrees and continue baking until gooseberries just burst and edges of crust are golden, 30 to 40 minutes. Allow tart to cool, then unmold or cut and serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Serves 6.

-- adapted from Saveur magazine

Raspberries are in peak season now, too. I love them. I love the sweet slightly tangy flavor and how they can turn a simple dessert into something stunning. Here's one from a new cookbook.

-- Arlene Burnett

RASPBERRY GINGER CHEESECAKE

PG TESTED

For the crust:

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (2 1/2-by-5-inch graham crackers, crushed)
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  
• For the filling:
  
• 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
  
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
  
• 1 teaspoon very finely minced fresh ginger
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
  
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  
• 12 ounces fresh red raspberries (about 1 1/2 cups)
  
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Position oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, ginger, and butter until crumbs are evenly moistened. Press onto the bottom and two-thirds up the sides of a 9-inch round springform pan. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven, set on wire rack to cool. With an electric mixer set on medium, beat cream cheese, lemon zest, and ginger until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the cream and vanilla.

Pour 2/3 of the batter into prepared crust. Place the pan in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Toss the raspberries with the cornstarch until coated. Remove pan from the freezer. Sprinkle the berry mixture over the chilled filling. Pour the remaining filling over the berries to cover.

Place the springform pan in a roasting pan filled with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until the filling is puffy and golden on top but still jiggles slightly when gently shaken. Remove springform pan from the water and set on a wire rack to cool at least 1 hour. Refrigerated at least 6 hours.

Let the cake stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving. When ready to serve, run a thin knife around the edges to loosen. Release and remove the pan side. The cake will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 3 days.

Serve slices garnished with a few fresh raspberries and mint leaves.

-- "The Greystone Bakery Cookbook" by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan (Rodale, 2007).

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Correction/Clarification: (Published July 7, 2007) In this story about gooseberries, as originally published July 5, 2007, a wrong last name was given to Sand Hill Berries' Susan Lynn.