Ground Cherries...what do you do with them?
 

I finally found something that thrives in the back corner of my garden...ground cherries. I had enough to toss into salads and make a couple of jars of jam this year. The plants are growing and spreading like weeds, so I'll have a lot more next year. What do you make with them? Recipes please.

~ C

Have little to no experience with fresh cherries but couldn't you make a cherry salsa? I know peach salsa if very popular. Could you cook them down, sweeten, put them through a food mill or food processor like you would apple sauce? Do they have enough pucker that you could pickle them?

I found these:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-...ries-98470003/

https://www.google.com/search?client...w=1366&bih=604

Well, I learned something today -- I had no Idea that Chinese lanterns had any other name or were edible.

I didn't know they were edible. I don't know that I've ever seen them in stores before.

If you have to many to process at the time they are ripening I would think you could use a Food Vacuum system like a Food Saver & seal them & freeze them until you are ready to use them in a recipe. That's what I did with fresh figs this year & it worked out great.

I have made ground cherry jam before. Google ground cherry jam and see what you get. I got my recipe out of a very old (1936) Ball or Kerr canning book.

I've seen those but never tried of tasted them. Thanks for showing a new fruit. I'll be on the look out for them.

When I saw this title, I thought "How do you grind cherries? Don't they all end up in a sticky lump? " Duh. Never knew what those little berries were called. Or that they're edible.

I am not sure Chinese lanterns and ground cherries are the same thing. I will have to search them. I grow ground cherries and eat them straight. Tomatillos are another husk tomato and can be used much the same as ground cherries. I have found ground cherries are a little sweeter. Experiment with all kinds and do lots of searches.
Lynda

I agree...I don't think these are the same as Chinese Lanterns. They look similar though. I like the taste of them raw, but they just beg to have something else done with them. I liked the idea of an upside down cake.

~ C

LOL, Me too! I was thinking, I guess you could still make a cherry pie even if they were ground up. DuH!

I have made ground cherry compote and served it over vanilla yogurt or ice cream yuummmmm. I have also made pies out of them and put them in muffins.... nothing better. My relatives are French and the are very common in Quebec and are called des cerises de Terre.

I used to can ground cherries by combining the ground cherries with apple slices and a simple syrup that made a delicious sauce. The ground cherries remained whole. The Chinese Lantern is a decorative plant so I don't think they are edible.

https://nesfp.org/world-peas-food-hu...round-cherries

Apparently they are in the tomato family.

They look similar tomatillos when they're growing. They have a papery husk on the fruit. The fruit looks like a small, yellow tomatillo, but it's sweeter. It's not overly sweet and has a slight vegetable taste. They're easy to grow and come back each year. They don't need great soil and not too much water.

~ C

They are not cherries, in spite of their name. :D They also go by "cape gooseberries," but they are not gooseberries either.

How about a spiced ground cherry compote?

In a heavy saucepan combine 4 cups fresh ground cherries (husked and washed) , zest from 1/2 lemon and juice form 1 lemon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg and 1 cup of sugar. Split 1 vanilla bean and scrape seeds into the mixture. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Cool & refrigerate.

My current fav thing is spiced jam on top of goat cheese spread over crackers or toast. This would work well like that too.