[HN Gopher] Black currants were banned in the USA (2017)
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Black currants were banned in the USA (2017)
 
Author : thunderbong
Score  : 112 points
Date   : 2023-09-12 06:55 UTC (16 hours ago)
 
web link (foodtolive.com)
w3m dump (foodtolive.com)
 
| alexwasserman wrote:
| Harvested raw berries in general don't travel well, and so there
| are plenty of instances of berries existing in specific
| countries. They need processing into something like jam to
| travel. You don't miss what you've never heard of.
| 
| As a Brit in the US losing currents is a shame, and an
| interesting reason, but there others we get in the US that are
| much rarer at home.
| 
| For example several here aren't found in the UK (or used to be
| hard to find): https://gizmodo.com/the-18-tastiest-berries-that-
| grow-wild-i...
 
  | kwhitefoot wrote:
  | > raw berries in general don't travel well,
  | 
  | A quick search for baer (berries) on the website of the biggest
  | online grocer here in Norway shows: blueberries from Poland,
  | Italy, and Spain, raspberries from Poland and Portugal,
  | blackberries from Belgium and Netherlands, redcurrants from
  | Norway. Perhaps they only travel well inside EFTA.
 
    | bombela wrote:
    | You find those modern thick skinned fat blueberries
    | everywhere it seems. But the more delicate berries not so
    | much.
    | 
    | Blackcurrant (Cassis) and redcurrant (Groseille) taste quite
    | different, they are nice sprinkled atop fraisier cake for
    | example.
    | 
    | One of my favorite little berry is the Myrtille. They are
    | tiny little balls, dark purple all the way through, and
    | lovely when cooked on a tart crust. Trader Joe has a frozen
    | berry tart from France that includes it. Yummy!
 
      | mytailorisrich wrote:
      | 'Myrtille' is blueberry. The thing is that there are
      | several cultivars and species, so it can be difficult to
      | know which one.
      | 
      | You probably mean the 'European blueberry', _Vaccinium
      | myrtillus_.
 
        | bombela wrote:
        | "Vaccinium myrtillus" literally means the "common
        | Myrtille". Which is not blue and doesn't taste like a
        | blueberry. I understand that blueberry is the common
        | North American English word for Bleuet an and Myrtilles.
        | While it's the other way around in France.
        | 
        | Blueberies are called Bleuet in Canadian French. And in
        | France today they are sold with the same two names on the
        | packaging (blueberies, bleuet), but often people will
        | call them myrtille anyways! A point of contention for me
        | as I am alwahs sad to hear Myrtille and be served Bleuet
        | :)
 
        | monkpit wrote:
        | Google says "myrtille" is the English "bilberry", not
        | blueberry.
 
        | mytailorisrich wrote:
        | Well not so strictly. It says bilberry or blueberry
        | because what is exactly meant is not so black and white,
        | and it may also depends on your flavour of English and
        | French.
        | 
        | For instance, @bombela says that "North American"
        | blueberry is 'bleuet' in Canadian French. In France,
        | 'bleuet' is a flower.
 
      | mrguyorama wrote:
      | >But the more delicate berries not so much.
      | 
      | I have a mountain of experience freezing wild maine
      | blueberries and wild strawberries. They both freeze just
      | fine and can be eaten as is after thawing, a little mushy
      | but still clearly the proper flavor profiles.
      | 
      | My grocery has an entire section of frozen berries.
      | 
      | Frozen berries will travel just fine and be delicious
      | anywhere. Most berries don't cross significant borders
      | because A HUNDRED YEARS AGO they couldn't travel well, and
      | so local tastes diverged. Consider, gooseberries are easy
      | to find here in new england when they are in season, but
      | you still wouldn't see something like a gooseberry soda,
      | because that's just not that popular of a flavor.
 
  | dylan604 wrote:
  | >Harvested raw berries in general don't travel well,
  | 
  | Yes, that's why the majority of berries in the US are grown in
  | Mexico. The largest selection of blueberries, blackberries, and
  | raspberries in my local groceries are all from Mexico. There's
  | one specific store that has a really great produce department,
  | and from time to time, they will have local blueberries from a
  | farm in state, but that's only while they are in season.
 
  | LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
  | They travel and store very well if shock frozen, which enables
  | me to buy them all year in bags from 500g to 2000g. Spicing up
  | my Musli, Yoghurt, sometimes ice cream, and what not else.
 
    | LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
    | Btw. regarding preparation of Musli with Milk, have you ever
    | tried putting it in the fridge overnight? And wouldn't you
    | expect a soft sludge then?
    | 
    | Not so if you put the frozen berries in! The low temperature
    | in the fridge lets the berries thaw up very slowly, turning
    | it all into a cool slush, which crumbles at the lightest
    | pressure. Can be varied by crushing/mushing the berries for
    | even more taste. Very pleasuring texture!
 
| ginko wrote:
| Meh, not a huge loss for Americans IMO. Blackcurrants are
| probably the berry I could most easily do without.
| 
| Redcurrants on the other hand..
 
  | vmilner wrote:
  | You can still get UK blackcurrant yogurt (eg "Longley Farm") in
  | the same little pots I used to get from the milkman in the
  | mid-70s so not all is wrong with the world....
 
  | pvaldes wrote:
  | Chokeberries would made an acceptable substitute.
 
    | SanchoPanda wrote:
    | If ever there were a food item that needed a "Chilean Sea
    | Bass" style marketing rebranding, its the Chokeberry.
 
  | nicolaslem wrote:
  | I didn't like it at first but as some grows in my garden I got
  | used to it. Now eating blackcurrant while working is one of the
  | highlights of summer for me.
 
  | scandox wrote:
  | Makes an amazing Jam. Surprisingly complex flavour.
 
    | tpm wrote:
    | And they have a naturally high content of pectin (a fibre
    | that is used as a thickener additive / gelling agent).
 
    | DrScientist wrote:
    | Yep - one of my favourite jams - that's how pretty much all
    | my black currents are used.
 
| TRiG_Ireland wrote:
| If you haven't had blackcurrant, seek it out. It's a distinctive
| flavour, and I love it. Also, while articles on this always
| highlight specifically blackcurrant, I believe that it also
| applies to redcurrant (like blackcurrant but milder) and
| gooseberry (like blackcurrant but tarter).
 
  | Lutger wrote:
  | Oh my, I don't care much for blackcurrent, but absolutely love
  | redcurrant and whitecurrant. The best one is a pink cultivar.
  | 
  | I tell you, the pines aren't worth it.
 
  | blincoln wrote:
  | Agreed. It's my favourite fruit flavour. It's _very_
  | distinctive, so I imagine it 's a love-it-or-hate-it taste. In
  | the US, there are few domestic products that incorporate
  | blackcurrant, but just about any European-import grocery will
  | likely be stocked with a wide variety. Jams, jellies, syrups,
  | soft drinks, instant oatmeal with freeze-dried blackcurrants,
  | etc. Larger liquor stores will often have (usually imported)
  | cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) as well.
  | 
  | I'm still disappointed that Strongbow never brought their "Dark
  | Fruit" cider to the US. I first tasted blackcurrant by drinking
  | one in London about ten years ago.
 
    | adw wrote:
    | ... I somehow shouldn't be surprised that industrial
    | snakebite-and-black exists. The favourite drink of UK goths
    | everywhere. I can feel Andrew Eldritch sneaking up behind me.
    | He has a drum machine.
    | 
    | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakebite_(drink))
 
  | tpm wrote:
  | And there is also josta (or jostaberry), a hybrid of
  | JOhannisbeere (blackcurrant) x STAchelbeere (2 different
  | species of gooseberry).
 
    | goda90 wrote:
    | I've planted two Josta bushes that I hope will produce next
    | year. Haven't even tasted one yet.
 
  | helpfulContrib wrote:
  | Another good one of the Berries of Distinctive Flavour is The
  | Elderberry .. the flowers from which one can make a delightful
  | syrup that not only makes for a superb soda, or cocktail base,
  | but can be turned into a fruit-flavoured Liquor, which is .. if
  | you like such things .. probably one of the nicest little
  | schnapps you'll slurp.
  | 
  | (Gotta cook 'em right though, well except the flowers, you just
  | harvest those before the ants do and make a delicious summer
  | soda for the kids ..)
 
    | skypanther wrote:
    | Elderberries make great jelly and pie. Unfortunately the
    | birds keep getting mine before they're ripe, it's hard to
    | find them in the wild on public land, and no one grows them
    | commercially around me. So I haven't had either in years.
 
    | TRiG_Ireland wrote:
    | The flowers, yes. I grew up on elderflower champaign.
    | Wonderful stuff. I have had elderberry cordial, but not
    | recently. Must seek it out again.
 
    | Arrath wrote:
    | There's also the salmonberry!
 
  | mortureb wrote:
  | Gooseberries are very different. Much more sour, very
  | firm/hard, crisp and very tannin-y. Pickled gooseberries made
  | in India are amazing if you're okay with it being hot.
 
    | tuukkah wrote:
    | Red gooseberry is somewhat less sour than the green one
    | though.
 
  | swores wrote:
  | Gooseberries don't taste anything like blackcurrant to me
  | (thankfully so, since I love gooseberries and don't like
  | blackcurrants)
 
| SanchoPanda wrote:
| Growing up outside the US, black currant was the third default
| flavor of ice cream after vanilla and chocolate. Having
| strawberry fill that role here still seems like a missed
| opportunity for something slightly more bitter in the lineup of
| your average tiny one cart ice cream vendor on a beach or
| similar.
 
| ravenstine wrote:
| The "author" either recently learned English as a second language
| or needs to upgrade from GPT-2.
 
| grumblepeet wrote:
| Such a coincidence. I rarely drink Ribena - which is the
| concentrate made from Blackcurrants (other blackcurrant cordials
| are available) - but the other day I bought a bottle. I had just
| made myself a drink of it and sat down and opened Hacker News and
| this is the first article I see. It's sad that that are banned
| over there in the USA and I did know about the issue with pines
| but the little berries are great in drinks and also for making
| summer pudding.
 
| jfrej wrote:
| Oh, so there's no Ribena[1] in the US? Or is it imported?
| 
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribena
 
  | dghughes wrote:
  | Hit and miss for Ribena here in Canada I never even knew about
  | it until last year. The existence of it I mean not the
  | availability here.
  | 
  | Here in Canada we tend to know more about UK stuff than people
  | in the US. We get imports the US doesn't of various products
  | Kinder chocolate/toy eggs for one.
 
  | OJFord wrote:
  | Probably (or its equivalent) 'grape' flavoured.
 
  | joncrocks wrote:
  | Cordial drinks aren't as much of a thing in the US anyway.
 
    | throwaway154 wrote:
    | I feel Ribena's so baked in to British psychology it's not
    | seen as a cordial. Orange, lime, and blackcurrant cordials
    | are cordials.
    | 
    | Ribena's just Ribena. It's mixed with water almost
    | exclusively, lemonade at a push, but blackcurrant cordial
    | would be used for snakebites or rum+Guinness. Surely I'm not
    | alone on this?
 
      | justinclift wrote:
      | > blackcurrant cordial would be used for snakebites
      | 
      | Of the actual snake variety, or are you meaning some kind
      | of drink?
 
        | dfawcus wrote:
        | A drink, larger and cider.
        | 
        | One can have a 'snakebite and black' adding a dash of
        | black currant, also a 'black nasty' being a 'snakebite,
        | pernod and black currant'.
 
        | doloputer wrote:
        | In the UK, it's a 50-50 mix of larger and cider. I guess
        | some people mix in some cordial too.
 
        | drivers99 wrote:
        | Both replies mentioned "larger" (and cider) so I googled
        | it and it's just a typo for "lager"
 
      | vmilner wrote:
      | I am with you on this.
 
        | throwaway154 wrote:
        | To add to mixing... just the right amount of water.
        | Stronger or weaker for a cordial is simply stronger or
        | weaker. But more or less water for Ribena is a question
        | of _right_ or _wrong_ ; that's why it's never quite right
        | when going round a friend's house back in the day, or if
        | it is that's uncanny.
 
      | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
      | Rum & Guinness sounds like an interesting combination. I
      | have to try it.
 
    | IntelMiner wrote:
    | I believe they refer to them as "Kool-Aid" drinks, despite
    | being prepared differently
 
    | red_trumpet wrote:
    | I'm not sure I understand the word "cordial" correctly, but
    | Ribena doesn't have alcohol.
 
      | wuiheerfoj wrote:
      | Cordial is a thick juicy syrup added to drinks, but is not
      | alcoholic itself. I think the GP means 'squash' or
      | 'diluting juice', which sometimes gets called cordial too
      | (though I associate cordial with the thicker stuff)
 
        | jfrej wrote:
        | It's worth noting that Ribena also comes ready made. If I
        | ever buy Ribena, that's what I go for. Especially the
        | carbonated version.
        | 
        | There are alternative blackcurrant cordials for diluting
        | which are much cheaper and taste good. I think every
        | British supermarket has their own brand one.
 
  | arethuza wrote:
  | Also _creme de cassis_ - which is basically Ribena with
  | alcohol!
 
  | dinkleberg wrote:
  | I'm sure you can find them somewhere in the US, but it is
  | definitely not a usual item here. I've never encountered it and
  | have only heard of it from some British folk.
  | 
  | I can't imagine many non-US soft drinks companies try to come
  | to the US and compete against Coke and Pepsi companies outside
  | of maybe niche stores.
 
  | alexwasserman wrote:
  | Basically not available outside of specialty stores, or the
  | occasional supermarket with an import aisle.
  | 
  | Definitely not widely drunk. Nor is Robinson Orange Barley,
  | which is still my fav drink, despite being somewhat older than
  | the typical market.
  | 
  | (Brit in US)
 
    | vmilner wrote:
    | I remember Annapolis MD used to have a store with lots of
    | British biscuits, Marmite, Bovril, marmalade, Ribena etc. -
    | an oasis to the Englishman abroad.
 
      | Tangurena2 wrote:
      | The nickname for them is "BritMart" and tend to be more
      | common in areas with large British expat communities. I
      | remember lots of them when I lived in Florida.
      | 
      | There is a bit of difficulty getting Cadbury's chocolate
      | due to Hershey owning the trademark in the US. They shut
      | down most grey-market importers.
 
        | vmilner wrote:
        | Can you get other (ie non-Cadbury) brands of chocolate
        | that don't have the butyric acid that (I believe) makes
        | Hershey etc. so grim to most British palates?
 
  | masfuerte wrote:
  | Ribena has been ruined with artificial sweeteners. If this
  | tinkering actually worked I wouldn't mind but Britons continue
  | to get fatter.
 
| swe_dima wrote:
| Adding black currant leafs when brewing tea can add wondeful
| taste!
| 
| I'd say it's stronger and more nuanced than mint.
 
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| Here in central Europe, I have black and red variants in my
| garden, from which I've been picking for my daily muesli on the
| regular for years, and probably have a few bowls' worth in the
| fridge, as their season is over but my collecting isn't .. they
| are delightful plants, providing much in terms of vitamin C and
| other things, such as sugars ..
| 
| I think berries (and peas) are among the easier things to grow
| locally, and I sure wish more people in the cities and things
| did, we'd have more for the birds ..
| 
| Of course, this story is a reason we can't just have
| 'uncontrolled agriculture' but so, I'd just say let people grow
| the native species of whatever they can eat and leave us all
| alone, gardening is a human right ..
 
| ofcrpls wrote:
| The closest I get to experiencing Black Currants in the US has
| been Black Currant Ice Cream in Indian Style Ice Cream shops and
| Duerr's Black Currant Preserve in Cost Plus World Market.
 
| mabbo wrote:
| When I lived in Scotland (exchange program year in University) I
| remember asking my roommates "what's blackcurrant?" And they
| looked at me like I had asked what an apple was.
| 
| We actually had to go search online and figure out why I'd never
| heard of them.
 
  | Orlan wrote:
  | For me, it was Skittles! I traveled to the UK, bought some
  | Skittles, and almost spit them out (blackcurrant instead of
  | grape). Had to look up what it was. Still haven't tried the
  | real thing, only in candy form.
 
    | mattl wrote:
    | British food area of your local grocery store may have
    | Ribena, which is a blackcurrant cordial.
 
      | tj-teej wrote:
      | Squash! :)
 
| oniony wrote:
| I have literally never seen blackcurrant written as two words
| before. Here in UK it's always a coined single word.
 
| xbmcuser wrote:
| If we are talking about unknown berries I would like to promote
| phalsa it grows in India and Pakistan only available in some
| cities in the month of May and June.
| 
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grewia_asiatica
 
| goda90 wrote:
| This really should be titled "Why WERE Black Currants Banned in
| the USA". They are no longer banned in the majority of states as
| the article itself says. I can buy them at the farmers market in
| Wisconsin when in season and my garden store sells bushes of
| multiple varieties of currants.
 
  | UncleOxidant wrote:
  | The article says: "Therefore, some states start reversing the
  | federal ban on this berry" and goes on to say "Today, these
  | plants are successfully grown in New York, Connecticut, Oregon,
  | and Vermont." which would explain why I've been growing black
  | currants in Oregon for the last 15 years or so, I guess.
 
  | miah_ wrote:
  | And just across the lake here in Michigan I cannot grow without
  | permit, and am only allowed a few varieties that are known to
  | be resistant to WPBR. I may try to grow some next season, if I
  | can get seeds _and_ a permit.
  | 
  | https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/mdard/docu...
 
| [deleted]
 
| hillsboroughman wrote:
| Awesome story. If black currants are so much richer than oranges
| in Vitamin C, why didnt the long distance sailors of the Age of
| Discovery, like the Portuguese going to India or the Spaniards
| going to the New World, not carry them? They only carried
| oranges. Puzzled.
 
  | crazygringo wrote:
  | Black currants don't keep fresh, the way citrus does.
  | 
  | So you'd need to dry them, which loses something like 90% of
  | the vitamin C in the process.
  | 
  | Seems like an awful lot of work when you can just haul a few
  | boxes of limes, which are a lot easier to harvest anyways then
  | tons of tiny berries.
  | 
  | (Not to mention they didn't even know about vitamin C
  | specifically to begin with.)
 
  | lionkor wrote:
  | they are very difficult to store in large quantities, and
  | pretty much impossible to store for longer periods than a few
  | days
 
    | diogenes4 wrote:
    | [dead]
 
  | raverbashing wrote:
  | Probably because the ability to measure Vit C was not invented
  | yet, and you really need a small dose of Vit C to not get
  | scurvy
  | 
  | (Not sure how blackcurrents keep over long distances compared
  | to oranges as well)
 
  | mrguyorama wrote:
  | The link between Scurvy and Vitamin C was not established until
  | the early 1900s. Before that, pretty much only experimental
  | evidence was able to establish what helped with scurvy, with
  | various things found to be useful, including certain animal
  | meats for arctic expeditions and sauerkraut, and lots of things
  | that definitely didn't cause scurvy were blamed for it, like
  | bad hygiene, tinned meats, alcoholism, etc.
  | 
  | For the British, things were especially bad. Numerous captains
  | and sailors had personally demonstrated and convinced
  | themselves that scurvy could be prevented with fresh citrus,
  | but were unable to convince the "classically trained"
  | physicians who made Naval policy, who were still pushing things
  | like "you need more air in your tissue". One of captain Cook's
  | expeditions had good results with malt and wort preventing
  | scurvy, so that was official practice even as navy admirals
  | demanded lemons.
  | 
  | The connection between citrus and Scurvy was finally proven in
  | an animal model in the early 1920s, before we even understood
  | what "Vitamins" where.
 
  | [deleted]
 
  | momirlan wrote:
  | or some Ribena bottles
 
| netsharc wrote:
| What an oddly written article. ChatGPT? SEO bot? High-schooler?
| 
| These sentences don't seem to have a very strong connection with
| each other:
| 
| > Getting black currants banned has been deemed minimally
| effective for disease prevention. Therefore, some states start
| reversing the federal ban on this berry. However, Europe still
| remains the producer of 99% of the world's black currants stock.
| 
| "It is not so bad"?
| 
| > Today, these plants are successfully grown in New York,
| Connecticut, Oregon, and Vermont. Yet, the majority of Americans
| can only enjoy processed or dried berries. It's not so bad
| considering the benefits of eating dry fruits.
 
  | Mordisquitos wrote:
  | It's badly written, but more on the level of a bad human writer
  | than any AI. The connection between the three sentences in the
  | first example seems quite clear to me. Starting from the second
  | sentence:
  | 
  | 1) "[...] _some states start reversing the federal ban on this
  | berry_ [because the ban has been deemed ineffective for disease
  | prevention] ".
  | 
  | 2) "[Even though some US states are reversing the ban] _Europe
  | still remains the producer of 99% of the world's black currants
  | stock_ ".
  | 
  | Regarding the second example, it is just an excuse to have an
  | internal link to another article on the same site praising
  | dried fruits. " _It 's not so bad_ [that Americans can only
  | enjoy processed or dried blackcurrants] _considering the
  | benefits of eating dry fruits._ ". The reasoning is quite
  | crappy, given that the linked article does not imply that dried
  | fruits are better than non-dried fruits, but it is to the level
  | of precision that one might expect from a filler blog on some
  | health-food online store.
 
  | [deleted]
 
  | sitzkrieg wrote:
  | the weird aff link in the middle for random berries is the
  | cherry on the top
 
  | NikkiA wrote:
  | Sounds like an ESL writer, 'It is not so bad' is a common
  | phrase I see written by native slavic speakers, it's probably a
  | direct translation of a language idiom.
 
    | OJFord wrote:
    | Why are we talking about it uncontracted, making it sound
    | weird, when the actual quote is 'it's not so bad' which
    | sounds perfectly fluent to me (native BrEng)?
 
      | hombre_fatal wrote:
      | It's definitely a common phrase but it's really poor
      | writing here.
 
        | OJFord wrote:
        | I agree, just only really because it's too
        | colloquial/informal/spoken for an article imo, wouldn't
        | be my choice. But not worth calling out, and certainly
        | not for not making sense or seeming like a robot or ESL
        | author wrote it.
 
  | pcrh wrote:
  | It reads like it was automatically translated from another
  | language. The grammar is all over the place.
 
  | nerdponx wrote:
  | It also answers the question directly in the first paragraph
  | with no fussing around, so I like it better than 99% of
  | articles.
 
  | radiorental wrote:
  | Definitely reads like AI. Short declarative statements. No
  | coherent narrative.
  | 
  | (I see what I did there (o;)
 
  | Aulig wrote:
  | The publishing date of the article is 2017, so pre-ChatGPT. Of
  | course there were spintaxes back then, but those articles were
  | way worse.
  | 
  | Either way, the article seems mostly fine to me.
 
    | aaron695 wrote:
    | > The publishing date of the article is 2017
    | 
    | I used to predate my blog posts in Wordpress by years. Why
    | would you use todays date? No one reads blogs in order, how
    | pedestrian to follow the old rules.
    | 
    | You can also fool some of Googles date metadata, it's not
    | just the day it's first indexed. Reddit by incompetence
    | screws with it.
    | 
    | But I've never seen a content farm do it.... yet.
    | 
    | Webarchive first snapshot 8th Nov 2020 - http://web.archive.o
    | rg/web/20230000000000*/https://foodtoliv...
    | 
    | The idea there is a pre-AI internet is not true.
    | 
    | AI will go back and change the past. Not even Google/Web
    | Archive can record it all. Is it AI pre-dating or was it
    | missed on Web Archive here? (A: The Facebook comments seem
    | real, so missed by Web Archive, but if Facebook deletes/makes
    | private the data then we are back to not knowing)
 
    | jliptzin wrote:
    | Chatgpt wouldn't write crap like that
 
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| I've got black currant plants growing here in Oregon (the variety
| is Crandall) - I've grown them for years. You can order them from
| One Green World near Portland - I don't see anything on that
| particular page that says they can't ship them:
| https://onegreenworld.com/product-category/berries/currant/b...
 
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| The leaves look a lot like raspberry leaves.
 
  | UncleOxidant wrote:
  | They look quite different from each other in person.
 
| vjk800 wrote:
| Pines and black currants both grow here in (Northern) Europe. How
| come the fungus isn't a problem here?
 
  | bstpierre wrote:
  | > Some varieties of European and Asian pines have this innate
  | resistance because they evolved alongside the fungus. However,
  | American trees met this threat too late to develop a workable
  | defense.
 
    | masklinn wrote:
    | So similar to e.g. phylloxera, chestnut blight, "dutch" elm
    | disease, ...
 
      | timeon wrote:
      | Yes most European vineyards are now grafted on American
      | rootstock.
 
  | happymellon wrote:
  | As the article states, European pine has a natural resistance.
 
  | pmx wrote:
  | This is covered in the article. European pines evolved
  | alongside the fungus so they have a natural resistance to it.
 
| Simulacra wrote:
| _The US Department of Agriculture had no choice but to have black
| currants banned because the plants became a vector for a disease
| that threatened to annihilate all pines in America_
 
  | DennisP wrote:
  | It sometimes startles me how disconnected some people are from
  | nature. I can't imagine all our pine trees dying off, it seems
  | utterly horrific. It would be devastating to biodiversity and I
  | would deeply miss the trees themselves. But to the author:
  | 
  | > It might seem extreme, but this measure was necessary to save
  | the logging industry at that time.
  | 
  | And later:
  | 
  | > The situation has turned so serious that it threatened the
  | existence of US pines. As they are the main element of the
  | logging industry, it must have been dealt with as soon as
  | possible.
 
| swyx wrote:
| [flagged]
 
| cout wrote:
| I grew up (in US) thinking blackcurrant was a variety of black
| tea. I had no idea until I got older that it is a berry.
| 
| Similarly, I thought elderberry was just a silly word that Monty
| Python made up to be funny.
 
  | Symbiote wrote:
  | I wonder if young Americans would make the association between
  | elder wood and elderberries, from reading Harry Potter -- the
  | Elder Wand is a significant object.
  | 
  | Elderflowers are also used in drinks, both cordials and
  | liqueurs.
  | 
  | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus
  | 
  | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elderflower_cordial
  | 
  | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Germain_(liqueur)
 
| mahidol wrote:
| Blackcurrants are no longer banned in the United States.
 
| systems_glitch wrote:
| Huh, we were wondering aloud at the farm the other day why
| they're basically unknown in the USA anymore. TIL.
 
| delfinom wrote:
| My parents were growing it illegally for years in the US (now its
| legal in NY) and they got the shoots from their relatives in
| Jersey who have been quietly farming it for a few decades (going
| back to the 1950s) for the Eastern European community in the
| region.
| 
| It wasn't really banned too well....
 
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