Plants are hardy, easy to grow, and their fruit make excellent jams, jellies, preserves, and pies.
Currants and gooseberries are also attractive shrubs that fit well into the home landscape. Despite these attributes, currants and gooseberries are not widely grown today. Their lack of popularity is due to unfamiliarity, the home gardener's preference for other fruit species, and disease problems. White pine blister rust requires both a Ribes species and white pine to complete its life cycle. The disease causes little harm to currants and gooseberries, but is often deadly to white pines.