Each classroom at my school received a massive quantity of ground cherries for our snack. My students enjoyed them and I gave them as many as they could eat! There was still a bunch leftover so I took them home and did a little research on this old fashioned fruit.

Ground cherries were ubiquitous in the early days of the Americas. I knew their interesting slight tacky feel was familiar but I couldn’t quite place it. I soon discovered these are related to tomatillos and also come with a husk around them.

Making jam was a safe bet with these interesting fruits. I actually really like eating them raw, but had my fill of them in that form. I rinsed them, whirred then in a chopper, added them to a pot with some sugar and simmered away!

I remembered to save a bit for seeds because I’d like to plant some in my garden. I’ve never seen these in a store before!

I typically can jams that wouldn’t require pectin, but happened to have a package on hand and squeezed about half into the mixture.

I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout!

Ground cherries are very seedy, but not as noticeable as say, guava.

Have you tried ground cherries?

Peace and love,

Kristan