Kiwifruit industry in New Zealand and Growers, who were calling the berries "melonettes", because the local name for the fruit, "Chinese gooseberry", had political connotations due to the Cold War, and to further distinguish it from real gooseberries, which are prone to a fungus called anthracnose. An American importer, Norman Sondag of San Francisco, complained that "melonettes" was as bad as "Chinese gooseberry" because melons and berries were both subject to high import tariffs, and instead asked for a short Maori name that quickly connoted New Zealand. In June 1959, during a meeting of Turners and Growers management in Auckland, Jack Turner suggested the name
Gooseberry Patch with retail partners, the Gooseberry Patch mail-order catalog was discontinued as of the end of 2009. Gooseberry Patch has been recognized as a national best-selling publisher by Nielsen BookScan, who compiles their list based on raw numbers of books sold nationally. Of the over 240 titles in this series, several have been ranked as "National Bestselling Titles" by Nielsen BookScan: Super-Fast Slow Cooking (), Summer in the Country (), Farmhouse Kitchen (), Rush-Hour Recipes (), Simple Shortcut Recipes () and Garfield...Recipes with Cattitude![eBook] (). Gooseberry Patch launched their first eBook titles in the Fall of 2010 now having over 140