Ground Cherries

These golden lovelies are Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries from our community garden.  Not my Aunt Molly, it's the name of this variety of ground cherry!  They're small, sweet berries that have a flavor similar to pineapple.  I posted a photo of one of the flowers last month.

Ground cherry is not a common fruit for the home garden, but they're very easy to grow.  We bought one or two transplants from Seed Savers Exchange two years ago, the sprawling plant drops its husked fruits when they're ripe. The ones that we didn't harvest came up the next year as new (free!) plants.  We didn't weed any of them out this year and one quarter of our space is full of ground cherry plants!  

I'm still looking for a good recipe to use them in, please share in the comments if you know of one!  Luckily, the berries keep in the husk for several weeks and are easily frozen after having the husk removed, so I can save them if I don't find the perfect recipe soon.  The berry is only edible when bright yellow, be sure not to eat the green fruits!