The test can be run years before breeders typically can grow enough seeds of experimental wheat varieties to begin milling and baking tests. Milling companies might someday use the test to identify potential wheat purchases that would produce the best flour. A new gooseberry variety named Jahn's Prairie could give most of today's Americans a chance to enjoy this plump, tart native fruit. Many wild gooseberry plants in the United States were destroyed decades ago because they can harbor a disease that threatened the pine industry. Jahn's Prairie, which resists the white pine blister rust, was selected from the wild by ARS and Candian experts.
Gooseberries are high in vitamin C and are popular in pies and preserves in England.
They ripen the first week in July, and could spark new life into a developing commercial gooseberry industry in the United States. The industry was largely abandoned here in the 1940s when a federal law called for eliminating gooseberries and their cousins, currants, because of the rust. The law was repealed in 1966 but some states still prohibit growing the fruits. Gooseberries grow well in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, the East and in Canada. The new variety also resists powdery mildew, a fungal disease of the leaves, stems and berries.