Yummy Ground Cherries
Several years ago, a wonderful farmer at the Brookside Farmers’ Market had a few small containers of ground cherries. I’d never heard of a ground cherry, but he was giving samples. One bite and I was in love. I bought a pint.
But, they didn’t last the 2-mile drive back home before I’d eaten them all and returned to the market to buy more. Much to my disappointment, he had none left. And I’ve never found them for sale again.
Since then, I’ve tried several times, unsuccessfully, to grow them. But this year, my experiment is a smashing success!
What’s a ground cherry, you ask? Also called a husk tomato (latin name: physalis pruinosa ), a ground cherry is a small orange fruit similar in size and shape to a cherry tomato. The fruit is covered in papery husk and tastes a bit like pineapple. The plants grow only 1 to 3 feet high and spread about 3 feet.
The secret to my success was ordering them as live plants from Seedsavers.org. I’ve mentioned them before – and probably will many times again – because they are my favorite place to buy seeds, and now live plants.
I ordered 10 plants and they are absolutely thriving, with an average of 20 fruit per plants. So far, that it is.
I’m not going to worry about recipes this year, I just can’t wait to eat them right in the garden, although I understand they are quite tasty dipped in chocolate!
I’ve been trying to grow these. I was given small plants by a friend who likes to grow things from seed. There are lots of flowers and small fruits on mine but they just don’t seem to grow very large – some have dropped off while small and others are still on but not large.
Do the fruits grow to fill the husk like tomatillos do? Maybe I’m getting confused about what they should be like.
Comment by Alison Kerr — August 30, 2009 at 8:36 am
Alison, the fruits don’t get very big; about the size of a marble, and they won’t fill the husk. When ripe, they should be orange or yellow-orange. Usually they drop off the vine when they are ripe, so you can just harvest those that are on the ground.
There is a wide variety of taste to them, I’m realizing, depending on the color. Green = not ripe yet and very sour. Light yellow = tangy, pineapple-y. Orange-yellow: orange-y,chocolate-y. Orange: very sweet and orange-y.
Comment by Rebecca — August 31, 2009 at 8:38 am