Of ground cherries and gooseberries

There are not many tropical fruit flavors to be found growing in gardens in the northern Midwest where I live. In fact, there is really only one garden stalwart with this attribute: ground cherries. After I posted a photo of a tomato and ground cherry tart on my Facebook page, some of my friends asked what a ground cherry was. Although these tiny fruits are abundant, I now realize that many people are unaware of them. That’s a shame, because they are easy to grow in almost any climate and offer a unique flavor that can best be described as a cross between a cherry tomato and a pineapple, hence the tropical vibe.

People often confuse ground cherries with European gooseberries, but they are not even in the same family. Although cape gooseberries are very similar to ground cherries, there are even differences between these two plants. According to the photos that accompany this article, what I have growing in my garden look more like cape gooseberries than ground cherries, although the flavor profile and time to maturity would indicate they are indeed ground cherries. My credentials as a former Master Gardener are now called into question.

Truth be told, I did not even plant this year’s crop. That’s because ground cherries readily self-sow, which is great if you want them to come back and annoying if you don’t. Despite ground cherries being easy to grow and plentiful in many areas of the world, there are few recipes in the EYB Library that explicitly call for them – 59 in total (11 online). There are more for cape gooseberries – 144 in total (5 online), although in a database of over 2.7 million recipes, that is a miniscule number. That’s okay, because ground cherries are at home in both sweet and savory dishes. You can treat them in savory dishes like a teeny-tiny tomato or you can use them as you would any other berry in a sweet recipe.

For those who may wonder about the tart above, I didn’t use a recipe. I made a flaky 3-2-1 pie crust for the base, parbaked (using weights at first) until mostly done. Once the crust had cooled, I filled it with a ~50/50 mixture of feta and cottage cheese whizzed up in the food processor with fresh herbs and garlic (think Boursin but creamier). I topped the filling with thickly sliced heirloom tomatoes, ground cherries, and shredded Parmesan. I baked it at 375 until the crust and Parmesan were both golden, then I sprinkled it with thinly sliced basil. It was divine.