Ever Heard of Ground Cherries?

Once you have tasted a ground cherry, you won't soon forget this sweet & tart fruit. It has a pineapple and a hint of mango taste. It has the appearance of a golden cherry tomato, but with the taste of a tropical fruit and the texture of plum. Ground cherry might be the lesser known plant in the nightshade family, but it is my favorite one to grow. This plant is also known as Cape Gooseberry, Golden Berry, Strawberry Tomato, or Husk Cherry.

Ground Cherry

Ground cherries (Physalis peruviana) are native to many parts of the U.S. and can be found growing wild throughout the country. They literally grow like weeds, with a healthy plant producing hundreds of fruit. The little yellow, sweet & tart, husk wrapped fruit never let you down when you need to do some pickin up. That's because they are actually picked off of the ground when mature. To me, the flavor is very unique. The ripe fruit is just sweet enough with pineapple and a hint of mango flavor. Ground cherries have thin paper husks on the outside of the fruit (similar to tomatillos). Opening the paper husk reveals the ground cherry inside. It reminds me of opening up a piece of candy. Funny, because the first person to wrap up some candy probably said "reminds me of a ground cherry". The unique tropical citrus flavor of a ground cherry is your reward from the greatest candy maker of all time. It's nature's candy in its purest form.

How to Grow Ground Cherry

Ground cherries are ridiculously easy to grow. They are practically wild and grow themselves. The growing conditions of ground cherries are similar to tomatoes but they are a bit hardier.

• They are frost tender, so start the seeds indoors about 4 weeks prior to the last frost date. I usually start ground cherry seeds the same time I start tomato seeds. Seeds will typically germinate within a week.
• Harden the plants off before setting them outdoors. Ground cherries will grow well in pots , as long as you provide consistent moisture and plenty of sunshine. Ground cherries will sprout roots along their stems just like tomatoes, so plant them deeply for more root growth.
• Ground cherries love to sprawl. Give each plant about 2 feet space to grow. The plant will stay low to the grow, so it is a perfect plant to include under a fruit tree.
• Just like tomatoes, ground cherries are a heavy feeder, so add lots of compost or worm casting. It responds very well to my comfrey fertilizer.
• It takes about 70 days from transplant to start producing fruit.
• Give ground cherries a minimum of one inch of water per week. During hotter months, give them two inches of water per week if there is no to little precipitation.

When to Harvest

Ground cherries produce a crazy amount of fruit from June to frost in my food forest. When a ground cherry is ripe, it's husk turns a light yellow, with a hint of pink color. To me, it's almost a flesh color. The cherry inside the husk will be completely yellow when mature. If there is some green to the cherry, it needs a little more time. Some fruit will swell, others will not. Quite a bit of inconsistency on the sizes of the cherries, but when ripened, big or small, all taste fantastically fruity. The fruit can be picked directly from the plant, but waiting until they simply fall to the ground makes it even easier to locate the ripe cherries. However, don't wait too long to collect the ones fallen to the ground, as ants and many other insects love ground cherries as much as us pesky humans do. Birds and squirrels also love to steal ground cherries that have fallen to the ground. I have personally witnessed two squirrels siting at my ground cherry patch cleaning up all the ripe ground cherries. Even though ground cherry is an annual, I always have many volunteer plants in the food forest each year even if I don't replant. It actually surprises me each year, as new ground cherry plants pop up in areas of the food forest where no ground cherry plant had ever grown before. It's always a treat to have healthy volunteer plants that produce.

Be Cautious

Keep in mind that ground cherry is part of the nightshade family. Do not eat ground cherries unless they have fully turned yellow. Unripened fruit (green in color) can have toxins that can make you sick. Ground cherries will continue to ripen even after harvest. Ground cherries have a long shelf life, usually lasting several weeks.

Pest

• Flea beetles love to chew holes in the leaves of the ground cherry plant. Mine are always covered with them as seen in the pictures, but they still produce an incredible amount of fruit for me each year. I sort of use it as a trap crop for flea beetles since it doesn't seem to affect the plant ability to produce flavorful fruit.
• Have to watch for cutworms early in the season after transplanting. I stick toothpicks around the stems to deter them.
• A Tomato Hornworm can devour an entire plant within days, so be on the look out for these gorgers.

From my own experience, ground cherries have been extremely easy to grow and have encountered no major issues. Just remember to give them plenty of water and sunlight. If they don't get enough water, the fruit will have a tough, chewy skin. But if watered regularly, the cherry will swell and have a thin skin that creates a burst of popping sweetness when you bite down.

How to Consume

Ground cherries have a long shelf life, but personally I eat most of them fresh. This is how I like them. A lot of my ground cherries don't even make it through the garden gate. I eat them while I am watering the garden. Hey, a gardener and food forester needs some quick energy in order to perform work. On top of eating them fresh, there are many different ways to enjoy ground cherries. You can make them into jams, pies, or sauces. Here is a Ground Cherry Crumb Pie recipe on Mother Earth News.

Gardening with Children

Do you garden with your children? Ground cherry is the perfect plant for a child's garden. The plant stays low to the ground, making it easier for children to harvest and look for pests. This plant is very low maintenance. It's easy to spot a ripe yellow fruit and the fruit stays clean because of the paper husk on the outside protects it, even after several days on the ground. It is my favorite natural candy in the food forest and even comes with a beautifully designed and engineered candy wrapper!

Ground cherry is something you can plant today and within three to four months be harvesting hundreds of tropical pineapple-like with a hint of mango flavored fruit. As a bonus, it produces lots of volunteer plants each year, so get em in the ground ASAP. I am now craving for them as I am finishing this post. Even though I eat most right off the plant, I did harvest some for my husband and am thinking he wouldn't mind if I swiped a few. Yummy ground cherries, here I come.

All photos come from my food forest
Photo copyright: @thelaundrylady

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