Husk Tomato

[rwc1969]

...ground cherry, tomatillo, chinese lantern, physalis spp.

Whatever you wanna call it, it's good to eat. I like ground cherry because they grow near the ground and are sweet and tart like a cherry.

I've found nothing in the wilderness that remotely resmebles this, but it's always a good idea to do your own homework and find out for sure based on your own little part of the world. These can be gathered by the handfulls in late fall, they have a protective sheath which keeps dirt and bugs off the sweet sticky fruits. they come in a wide variety of colors anywhere from green to purple whe ripe and the easiest way I've found to tell if they're ripe is to taste them. If they are too sour I don't eat them, just like any other fruit really.

As far as pics and descriptions the internet is already chock full of information. There are cultivated varieties and a popular dish is Salsa verde, but i want to make a pie with them. These are easily cultivated and grow right up through the meanest weeds. There is a local garden chock full of purple volunteers from last season. Plus, I've found wild varieties growing in almost every field around here. But, they can be easily missed as they only grow up a foot or two high at most in the wild around here.

You may find a few with mold or frostbite, but other than that, they are a pretty clean fruit that doesn't seem to get bugs. I've yet to find a cultivated or wild one with a bug in it, or even on it for that matter. They also seem to store fairly well given what they are, a fruit. I've had a handfull of cultivated ones sitting in my window sill for about a month and they are still just as fresh as the day I picked them, one rotted, but I think it was damaged.

A pretty good wild edible. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ao2K7v6lI&list=PLAB9DFB2A4ED09C68

[jake abraham]

thanks for the info I am going to find these

[oldtrap59]

rwc. I remember the quickest way to get on my dad's bad side when I was a kid was to trample one of his ground cherry plants in the garden. Man loved those things no doubt. We always had a large garden and he let all the ground cherries that wanted to volunteer each year have their chance. Seemed like hundreds to me but never enough for him. :>)

Oldtrap

[rwc1969]

Seems they volunteer like crazy Oldtrap. I have a huge garden full of them from last year, not my garden though. but, it's nobody's garden, so they're free for the picking or trampling. :) These are the big purple ones though and they don't seem quite as sweet as the wild ones.

I've known about these since I was a little kid, but was surprised to find out they grow wild too.
I see another guy on Youtube found some. His wife grows them for the flowers, his are bright red though.

[your_comforting_company]

Are these ready in your area? A cattle farmer that I'm working for says he has some around there and I want to go find them.
If memory serves (It's pretty early in the morning still...) they are in the solanaceae family? The same as Nightshade. I haven't found any myself so I'm interested to see. Thanks for the vid!

[rwc1969]

That's the family. The big purple cultivated ones, not in the vid, were getting ready a month or so back, but these wild ones seem to be just getting ripe. We've had several frosts and a freeze or two already which is odd, because they don't seem frostbit, the fruits that is. the guy with the red ones was just picking his too, so I'd say this is the time to be picking them.

Good to "read" from you again YCC.

[feral chef]

ok im curious if anyopne knows if these grow in the new england area i tried looking and cant get consistent answer?

[rwc1969]

It's very likely they do feral chef. Many are escaped volunteers of domestic varieties. They seem to have a wide range of habitat and temperatures as well. Nobody ever told me they grew here, I just happened to stumble upon them.

[Rick]

According to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America they do extend into New England but are more prolific in the Central and Southern states. If they grow in RWC's area I see no reason they wouldn't grow around you. The book says they even extend into Southern Canada.

[feral chef]

any info on what the typical place to look would be

[rwc1969]

open upland fields, your neighbors flowerbed, .