Ground Cherries

One of my favorite parts of farmer’s markets is the new foods you discover, the things that big industrial farms don’t bother with but a local farmer might try just for the heck of it. A couple years ago one of the farmers at our usual market was giving away samples of ground cherries. Although they look kind of like a tomatillo because of the paper husk they grow in the fruit inside is closer to a cherry tomato. What was so surprising was the flavor: they are actually quite sweet. An apt description I read somewhere is that they are a cross between a tomato and a pineapple.

So now every year when we see them we indulge in one pint just because they are so fun. (And you don’t want to know how much we pay…it’s not very frugal.)

I would love to make jam out of them and I have read that they are great dipped in chocolate but I wouldn’t bother with either of those projects unless I had a larger, cheaper supply. The only way to achieve that might be to grow them myself so you’ll just have to wait until next year to see if I can even find seeds.