Ground Cherries

Ground Cherry Recipes: Homemade flavor
The distinctive, sweet-tart taste of ground cherries lends itself to wildly diverse recipes. Remove the husks and rinse the fruits before preparing. Husked fruits keep in the refrigerator for five to seven days. To freeze ground cherries, simply spread the husked, washed fruits on a rimmed cookie sheet and place them in the freezer. Once they're hard, package them in plastic bags. The simplest way to eat ground cherries is to remove the husk and pop the fruit into your mouth. Raw, chopped ground cherries also taste delicious dropped into pancakes or mixed into salsa. Try this pair of easy-to-prepare recipes. They celebrate the signature flavor of this unique fruit and are sure to satisfy the sweet tooth in your family.

Recipe: Ground Cherry-Pineapple Crumble

• Combine 3 cups halved ground cherries and 3 cups fresh pineapple chunks with ½ cup sugar.
• Spread in a baking pan.
• In a food processor, pulse ½ cup blanched almonds until coarsely chopped, and then add ¼ cup unsalted butter, ¼ cup flour, and ½ cup brown sugar.
• Pulse until roughly blended; then spread over the fruit.
• Bake at 375°F or 30 to 40 minutes, or until bubbling and golden.
• Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Newbie hint
Prevent sprawl: The undersized cages sold for tomatoes work perfectly for supporting lightweight ground cherry plants.

Master's tip
Reduce work: Suppress weeds and make harvesting easier by growing ground cherries on landscape fabric. Before planting, spread the cloth over the bed and secure with landscaping pins. Then cut holes into the fabric and plant seedlings.