Have You Ever Eaten a Ground Cherry?

For several weeks this summer, my 7-year-old would wake up early, put on her rain boots, go outside (still in her pajamas!), and go straight to the garden... to pick and eat Ground Cherries.

Ground Cherry

Even though the Ground Cherry is native to most of the Americas and was eaten by Native Americans and Pilgrims, most people have never heard of this little fruit.  Indeed, I had never had one until last year, but after tasting them I immediately wanted to start growing my own!

Physalis pruinosa, also synonymous with Physalis pubescens, has many nicknames, including Ground Cherry, Husk Cherry, and Husk Tomato.  The Ground Cherry is related to Tomatoes and Tomatillos, but the little fruits are more sweet and fruity tasting.  Even though they keep well for a long time, they have likely fallen out of favor now because they are so small and each one has a papery husk on it that you have to remove before eating.

A Ground Cherry is actually about the size of a small grape.

I often hear Ground Cherries described as tasting like a cross between a pineapple and a tomato.  The taste can be rather variable.  I've tasted two different kinds.  A nearby farm grows a variety that tastes rather like a pineapple, but with an earthy flavor, rather like ripe banana.  The ones I grew this year were brighter tasting, like a cross between a pineapple and a mango - absolutely delicious!  I think the variety I grew were much tastier, but they were smaller and seedier than the farm-grown ones.  

There are only a few known named cultivars of Ground Cherries - Aunt Molly's, Cossack Pineapple, and Goldie.  (The Ground Cherry seeds that I grew were not named.)  Physalis pruinosa does also have many edible relatives, such as the similar-looking Physalis peruviana, aka Cape Gooseberry.  

Even though you grow them the same way you grow Tomatoes, Ground Cherries are hardier and much easier to grow.  They are not as picky about soil, they don't have to be staked, they don't have as many problems with disease, and critters don't eat them, since most of the plant (including the husk surrounding the fruit) is toxic.  The plants are short and wide, resembling Tomatillo plants more than Tomato plants, and the plentiful fruit look a lot like little Tomatillos.  The papery husk on them turns yellow as it ripens, and when they are totally ripe, they will fall to the ground - thus the nickname Ground Cherries.  

plants loaded down with green Ground Cherries

Ground Cherries are very versatile - they can be eaten plain or cooked in savory or sweet dishes.  According to Edible Omaha, some Native Americans tribes used Ground Cherries to make a savory relish.  A recipe from the Zuni tribe combines them with onions, chili paste, and coriander.  On the other hand, early European settlers used them to make pie and jam.  I think Ground Cherries would taste great in a salad (with some goat cheese, perhaps?).  And we all knew it was just a matter of time before someone dipped them in chocolate...

Unfortunately (for me), I was not able to collect very many Ground Cherries this year for cooking - my kids ate them all before I got the chance!  I wanted to try a pie, but even then I had to supplement my scanty leftover amount of Ground Cherries with peaches.

Ground Cherry and Peach Pie... yum!

They are supposed to reseed easily, so hopefully there will be even more Ground Cherries next year - enough for the kids and for me!

So have you ever eaten a Ground Cherry?

Our New Red Veggie Garden!

After several weeks of digging, stone excavating, building, and painting, our veggie garden is finally ready for the big reveal:

Ta da!

Our veggie garden fence is finally done! 

our (hopefully!) critter-proof veggie garden fence!

Knowing that we have rabbits, groundhogs, and deer in the area to fend off, we did our best to make our garden safe for the veggie plants.

Veggies tasty for the critters are on the inside of the fence.
On the outside are plants usually avoided, such as rhubarb and ground cherries 

The bottom part has 1/2" wire mesh to keep out the smaller critters.  We dug trenches and buried the mesh a foot down to hopefully deter the tunneling groundhogs (or, as we call them, R.O.U.S.'s).  

Larger-holed mesh covers the middle chunk, and wire is strung near the top to hopefully prevent the deer from thinking this was a free, all-you-can-eat salad buffet.

I have to give major props to the fabulous Mr. Red House, who designed and built this gorgeous arbor and gate for me!

Within, the garden holds pretty much all the components of several types of salsa, as well as a mean salad or two.  Having quite the plethora of stones after digging up the ground for the garden, the veggie beds are lined with (can you guess?) rocks.  

Our veggie garden only contains organic, hand-dug, native rocks.
'Cause that's the way we roll...

There is still a little more stone-moving and filling up of ditches to be done, but I'm so happy that the garden is pretty much done and the veggies are in the ground!

Happy gardening!

Stone Soup, Anyone?

We haven't even finished building our veggie garden, and we already have an overabundance of our first crop.  

This crop seems to grow a little too easily in this area, as we have harvested dozens in just a small section of soil.  Some even seem to be growing one on top of the other!

While we do love this particular crop, it is pulling them out that is the problem. Some come out easily; others seem to have very deep roots indeed.  

  

It is somewhat exciting - these didn't grow nearly as big or in so much abundance in my previous garden in North Carolina.  If only they weren't so hard to harvest...

A few had grown so large that it took the efforts of both Mr. Red House and I to uproot them. And then there was the Big One.  It had roots so deep, that it defied both our efforts.  (We decided it was quite fine staying where it was.)

Anyone up for some Stone Soup?  You just have to dig a little... (or a lot!)

Seedlings-in-waiting

Back in February and March, when snow was still coming down and piling up on the ground, this gardener was eager to do something for the garden, so I started planting packets of seeds indoors in my guest room conservatory.

Sorry Mom and Dad, you don't mind sharing your room with the plants when you come to stay, right?

Well, now I have seedlings.. and lots of them!

pepper seedlings

I have seedlings in my guest room conservatory..

seedlings on my deck..

tomatillo seedlings

seedlings in my garage..

I think I might have gone a little overboard.

Some of these seedlings are destined to a local garden club's plant sale and some to friends and family.  We'll see if I can find room in my yard for all that will still be left!

Tomato seedling - one of about 492.  Okay, maybe not that many, but there's a lot!

Of course, for the past few weeks, we have all been waiting for that magic Last Frost Date.  It is now within sight, and it is so warm out, that I could probably start planting now..

Isn't this one of the best uses for the red Solo cup?

...except all of my spare time is being used to work on building our awesome new Veggie Garden!
Stay tuned...
And happy planting!

cucumber seedlings in newspaper pots

p.s. Anyone want a tomato seedling?  I have a few to spare...

Fiddleheads and Rhubarb

Pop quiz: which of these plants in my shade garden is edible?

Many of you probably know that Foxglove is highly poisonous, which leaves the correct answer:  the Ostrich fern!

I'd heard before that young curled fern fronds, or fiddleheads, as they're known as, were edible; however, I've never seen them sold in grocery stores before I moved up north to the Boston area.  Either I have fancier grocery stores nearby now, or this is a more Northern delicacy.

fiddleheads at the grocery store!

Of course, I had to try them, being previously uncertain about picking them out of my garden.  Sautéed with garlic and butter, they were quite good, tasting rather like asparagus to me.  Mr. Red House maligned them as tasting 'green', but, well, this is the man that refers to salad as 'rabbit food'.   

Here I was with a garden of gourmet wild vegetables, and I didn't even know it!  Next time I'm at the store and see some fiddleheads, I think I have to try the University of Maine's recipe for Shrimp and Fiddlehead Medley (with linguini!)  Mmmmm....  To pick fiddleheads from your own garden, harvest them in spring when they are just a few inches high and still tightly curled. 

Cinnamon fern fiddleheads

Ostrich fern is the most common source of edible fiddleheads in the New England area.  Other edible fiddleheads include those of Lady ferns, Cinnamon ferns, and Bracken ferns - though debatably so, as Bracken ferns contain a carcinogenic compound that must be broken down by heat.  In fact, it is advised that all fiddleheads be thoroughly cooked, as if not some can be mildly toxic.

Ah, but fiddleheads were not my only find at the supermarket here in Boston.  Right nearby in the produce section was...

Rhubarb!!

For you Northerners, I might have to explain how exciting this is.  In North Carolina, it was an annual ritual at the height of strawberry season - the finding of the rhubarb.  I would trek to every grocery store nearby looking for one that had rhubarb.  Oftentimes it would be on backorder at the upscale grocery stores - it was seriously hard to get!  

it even looks somewhat fresh!

Being relatively unknown in the South (this is a plant that needs cold!), if I did manage to find rhubarb, I would inevitably end up in a discussion with the cashier as to what it is and how to use it.  There are many different recipes that involve rhubarb, but I, dear reader, desperately needed it every year for Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie.

Our favorite pie of all time - Strawberry-Rhubarb
Mmmmmm....

Once when describing the deliciousness of a Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie to a particularly dubious cashier, I told him that it was even better than Sweet Potato Pie.  His eyes grew wide, like I had just said a particularly terrible curse word.  (In truth, I was on shaky ground, since Sweet Potato Pie is my second favorite pie of all time - and I've only had store-made.)

Now that I live further north, I'm very excited to grow my own rhubarb plant

 - right next to my strawberry plants, of course!

Recipe for Indie's Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

1 recipe pastry for Double-crust pie

3 stalks fresh Rhubarb, sliced

Strawberries, enough so that when chopped, the rhubarb and strawberries should add up to 5 cups of fruit

1/3 cup flour

2/3 to 3/4 cup sugar

1 secret ingredient - because you should always have one so that when someone particularly loves your pie, you can say the secret ingredient made all the difference!

(p.s. My secret ingredient is usually lemon or orange zest)

In a large bowl, combine the flour and sugar.  Gently mix in everything else.  Pour into a pastry-lined pie plate.  Place top pastry on filling, crimp edges, and cut slits on top.  Cover edges of pie with foil.  Bake in 375 degree F oven for 25 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for 25 minutes more or until the top is golden and the filling is bubbling.  Cool on a wire rack.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or eat cold with a glass of milk!

You're welcome.

Rejoice, the Plant is Dead!

Finally.  Finally it has gotten cold enough to have our first good plant-killing frost of the season.

You might be surprised that I would want such a frost.  It's now frigid outside, the leaves of most perennials are in tatters, and all of my annuals are kaput.  But I do have a confession - there is one annual that I have been waiting to die...

the Jalapeño Pepper plant

I have had two problems with this plant:

1) the only person in the house that eats jalapeño peppers is Mr. Red House

2) this plant doesn't know how to stop giving.  

And giving. 

And giving.

I actually did can my first pint of pickled peppers this summer, which I was very proud of myself for.  So I put the next large round of peppers that I picked in the fridge, meaning to can them.  Well, you know how life gets (I like to blame my kids a lot for these types of things); before I knew it, the peppers were too old to use, and I had to throw them out.  

Die, plant, die!

Several more times I had to throw out large batches of peppers, as I refused to admit the fact that I just didn't have time to can, and Mr. Red House certainly couldn't eat scores of peppers each week.  Seriously, how many plants can one little plant produce?!  This plant was getting on my nerves and giving me quite the guilt complex!

It's about time!

Now, after a good freeze, I think this plant is finally done!  No more guilt about wasting food!  ..Well, at least, until next summer when Mr. Red House begs me for another pepper plant... 

Do you have any perfectly good plants in your garden that you wish would die?

10 Reasons You Should NOT grow a Vegetable Garden

1. To build your garden you will need to acquire good dirt, which might lead to the horrifying realization that good dirt includes such things as cow 'manure' and worm 'castings' - which are really just different names for animal 'poop'.

2. You will find that your children will want to 'help' plant and water the garden.  This might will lead to dirty and unkempt children.

3. Your children might want to go outside more often to 'help' with the gardening and picking of vegetables.  You may have to go outside as well in order to supervise, which might will lead to a shattered image of the gardening experience as being quiet and tranquil. 

4. Each morning, you will have to go out in the fresh air and water said garden, though thankfully only in good weather.

5. Your kids will enjoy fresh vegetables so much that after summer they won't want to eat the ones you bought in plastic packaging at the store anymore.

6. Your success in growing vegetables might lead to boasting, and we all know that pride goes before a fall, usually over that hose you left laying next to the garden.

7. You might end up with so many vegetables that you will experience the feeling of being overwhelmed, which could possibly lead to depression.

8. In order to deal with the abundance of vegetables, you might have to go to the effort of talking nice with the neighbors in order to pressure them into taking these unwanted vegetables.

9. If the abundance of vegetables is too great, you might even have to take the time to learn new skills such as freezing or even canning.  This is a gateway to hippie-like tendencies. 

10. Growing fresh vegetables will lead to the eating of more fresh vegetables, which can lower consumption of other delicious foods such as baked goods, desserts, and bacon.  Ah, thank goodness my veggie garden is now pretty much over for the season, and the holidays are on their way...  

What, here in North Carolina you can grow a cool-season vegetable garden too?  Nnooooooo!!

A Horseshoe Shaped Vegetable Garden

Last summer's vegetable garden didn't turn out so well.  My poor veggie plants were sad, spindly things thanks to not enough sun and sub-par dirt.   This year I was determined to change that by building a new garden for my veggies.  The best available sunny location was in my side yard, on the south side of my house.

The 'Before' Picture

I didn't have much space for it (it is a side yard, after all!), so I decided to make a horseshoe or U-shaped bed, inspired by the keyhole garden design.   Since the rocky clay is so difficult to dig in, I also decided to make it into a low, raised bed.

First step - clearing away all that grass!  That was supposed to be a mulched area.  Isn't it amazing how grass grows so well wherever you don't want it to?

I used rocks as walls, lined the edges with landscaping fabric so the dirt wouldn't fall through the cracks, and then filled it with dirt - nice, composty-rich dirt.

I left room by the downspout for a rain barrel which is going in as soon as I get it painted.  

The 'After' Picture - all done and planted

Green beans and cucumbers are in the back on the trellis, then I have tomatoes, peppers, okra, basil, carrots, cilantro, and nasturtiums on the ends.  I have high hopes - already the plants are looking better than last year's!

Nasturtiums 'Empress of India' - pretty and edible!