Ground cherry mania

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The other day I was at the Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market when an unexpected thing happened: there were ground cherries for sale.  Trying to find ground cherries around here is pretty difficult.  These little fruits aren’t hard to grow at all (they’ll grow just about anywhere), and even though they’re native to Central and South America they grow here as an annual just fine.

Since ground cherries generally aren’t sold in grocery stores, most of us have never tasted them.  They’re pretty yummy - sort of a combination of tomato and pineapple.

I have a whole bag of them in the kitchen right now, and I haven’t yet decided what to do with them.  Upon first glance, it seems like I’m limited to mostly pie and jam.  I did find some more interesting ideas, though:

• ground cherry ketchup
• ground cherry and vanilla compote
• ground cherry salsa
• ground cherry and goat cheese salad
• ground cherry and yogurt tart
• ground cherry and raspberry clafouti

I can barely wait to get to the kitchen!