Thumbing through one of our gardening books, I saw a brief article about ground cherries. Are you familiar with this interesting little plant? My Mom, the intrepid gardener, was always eager to try a new plant. Undaunted by the fact that she never grew a certain plant before, she would forge ahead, do some home work in her own collection of gardening books and newspaper clippings, and try the latest addition to the garden. I don't know how she came to plant the ground cherry one year, but I remember that it did very well.
So let me tell you about it; the ground cherry is part of the Chinese Lantern family, and indeed, the ground cherries with their husks look very much like Chinese Lanterns. The plants are annuals, and a good guide to grow them is to follow the same planting habits as you would for tomatoes. The ground cherry likes a sunny location, good drainage, and needs about 90 to 100 days to mature. After this time, your ground cherries, which have been growing in a delicate husk that looks like green parchment paper, will turn brown, and the ripe "cherries" will fall to the ground. I can recall that Mom and I picked several bowls of the golden jewels, each in their own little wrapper.
The ground cherries themselves are the same size as cherry tomatoes, and when ripe, turn a golden-orange color. I read that they can be used to make jam, or can be used in pies. If you had an abundance of the ground cherries and wanted to try an experiment, I read that they can be dried like raisins. That would be an interesting new ingredient to cook with, wouldn't it!
Now here are some interesting little factoids about ground cherries: they are known be several names, including husk tomato, strawberry tomato, and poha berry. If you and I were lucky enough to visit beautiful Hawaii, we might even have poha jam with our toast and tea and guess what poha jam is jam made from ground cherries!
We've barely cleared off our gardens and already we're finding new plants to add to our list of "should try" plants for next year! Have you cleared off your garden yet? We did, perhaps a bit too early, but we preferred to clean it wearing jeans and t-shirts rather than parkas and rubber boots! You know how the weather can turn so suddenly, and we've all been there, done that!
The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society is in full swing again, and our next meeting is on Wednesday, October 19 at 7 p.m. at the Sunshine Room, SIGN on North Street. Our guest will be Anna Schaab from The Garlic Farm in Yorkton, and Anna will be telling us about how to grow and care for garlic. We hope you can join us - remember, you don't have to be a member to come to the meetings!
All Hort Club members, remember to bring your garden photos to add to our group photo album.
Have a good week, gardeners; maybe you'll be out in your garden, doing yard clean up. Remember to leave some stems and seed heads for the birds to enjoy over the winter!
