<< The Farmers' Market

08/16/13 - Ground Cherries

We had heard of ground cherries, but we had never seen any. Supposedly, they look like tomatillos, that is, they have little chinese lantern husks on each of their fruits. We found some on sale at Nash Huber's farm store, so we bought some and tried them. The most obvious difference is that ground cherries are golden yellow, not green. Ground cherries don't taste like tomatillos either. Tomatillos are tart, while ground cherries are sweet. They actually taste something like a cherry with a coconut richness.

Apparently, ground cherries, tomatillos and chinese lanterns are all from the same genus, Physalis. The fruit of the chinese lantern, apparently, does not have much flavor, so it is unlikely to turn up at the local farmers' market or fruit stand. (For more on ground cherries, check out this article at Seedsavers.)

Some ground cherries

A closeup

Keywords: food