Gooseberries

We have three gooseberry bushes in the garden and apart from the year when I pruned them too hard at the end of the previous summer they generally produce a decent crop.  The trick is picking them at the right time - too early and, well, they're just hard and sour.  Leave it too late and they go brown and mushy.  We were almost too late this year, but got a few decent ones to make either jam or chutney with - although I'm thinking this year of trying a gooseberry fool.  Gooseberries are not, of course, the easiest fruit to pick, on account of the the ferocious thorns.  You can't wear too thick a glove otherwise you can't feel for the fruit but it seems that no matter how well you try to protect your hands those thorns will find a way through...

Anyway, we liberated a few and before they got thrown in a pan I whipped them into the garage for a quick snap with the 'Blad and here is the result from yesterday morning's darkroom session:

Gooseberries on Foma 133 paper, sepia toned

I'm still learning about the Foma 133 paper.  In a warmtone developer such as WT-10 it can be very warm - maybe too warm.  In multigrade developer, which is what I used here, it appears to be much more neutral and more like Ilford's Warmtone paper.  After the usual wash I dunked the print in standard sepia bleach (potassium ferricyanide/potassium bromide mix).   Not for very long, though - just enough to see the bleach starting to take affect.  Then a wash for 10 mins followed by the toner stage.  I prefer using a very dilute toner and then toning to completion.