Goldie Ground Cherries

What is a ground cherry? Ground cherries are blueberry sized fruit that have a flavor I would describe as a pineapple flavored tomato with a hint of vanilla. How does that sound?

Ground Cherries are often compared to a tomato I think the only similarity between the two is the same timing of planting – after all danger of frost has past. The first year we planted them we thought they would grow with our tomatoes in our string weave system. We have also tried to cage them. We eventually discovered that ground cherries prefer to sprawl across the ground rather than be caged or staked like a tomato.

Harvesting Ground Cherries is pretty simple. When they are ripe they fall off the plant. No picking fruit off the plant. We lift the branches and gather the ripened fruit from the ground. This year we grew our ground cherries in our garden that we straw mulch. It has been a bit slower at harvesting them this year picking through the straw. I recommend using weed mat as a mulch for these guys – it makes harvest a flash.

The ripe fruit falls to off the plant and are harvested from the ground

Ground cherries grow in a papery husk concealing the fruit. Pop them out of their husk with a gentle pinch. A ripe ground cherry with feel slightly soft when pinching it out of the husk. Goldie Ground Cherry will have a golden yellow color and look slightly translucent when it is perfectly ripe.

We like to make ground cherry jam. If making jam isn’t your thing try slicing or smash them up and add to a bowl of vanilla ice cream. You can also treat it as a sweetener to tomato recipes.

Check out this Ground Cherry Salsa from Straight from the Farm.