Ground cherries are a ½ to ¾ inch fruit encased in a papery husk, kind of like a tomatillo. They are ripe when the husk dries and falls from the plant, inside of which is the fruit ranging from a pale green to deep golden color. While ground cherries are in the nightshade family, they are not as susceptible to diseases found in other nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, etc.) They also grow well in poor soils and in containers.

I am growing two varieties of ground cherry this year, Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry, a Polish heirloom and a mystery variety a friend gave me. They are both in the unamended brick bed (you can see the Aunt Molly’s in the corner here.) I started harvesting that one this week and I have to say it is… interesting.

The fruit smells a bit like a pineapple and has kind of a refreshingly acidic flavor. Apparently they store for 3-4 weeks in the husk so may try collect enough to make a small tart which apparently enhances their flavor. I think that this is one of those fruits that you either like or you don’t and I’m honestly not overwhelmingly impressed with them. They aren’t awful by any stretch of the imagination, they just taste too… clean? for me. They look gorgeous though and I might stick them in the dehydrator to dry up the fruit and use them for decorating.

This weekend my raised beds and I spent some quality time together.

I transplanted 3 black beauty zucchini because I am a sucker for punishment, 5 sugar pie pumpkins because I adore giant orange things, cilantro and red onions and yellow onions. I also have purple haze carrots and mammoth dill directly sown and hopefully working towards giving me an abundant crop.

On Friday we had some friends over, including the lovely Laurie and Ben. They brought us a couch and several transplants for us. I transplanted the chives, garlic chives, triple curled parsley and tarragon but am waiting another week before I transplant the tomatoes (Giant Valentine, Black Krim, Stupice) and ground cherries. Better safe then sorry, the lemon cucumbers and basil I started will be waiting another week before transplanting as well.

All the seeds I started this year were planted in cardboard egg cartons and so far it seems to have worked pretty well. The roots of the pumpkins were starting to grow through the cardboard, so I didn’t even both removing them from the cups when I transplanted them. I think that they will degraded just fine. If I wanted to grow larger transplants (like if I start my tomatoes indoors next year) they will need to move up to a larger container but for the small starts egg cartons seem to work great.

(Mmmmm tomatoes… Grow my pretties, grow!)

The hardest part about growing your own food is waiting for it to be ready I noticed a few flower buds on the ground cherry transplant this morning and I think that just heightens the anticipation. Come wild plant spirits of my garden, grow!