FREE: Aunt Molly's Groundcherry (15 + seeds)

The listing, Aunt Molly's Groundcherry (15 + seeds) has ended.

Fruit you can grow from seed in your vegetable garden! These are golden and about 3/4” in size, and are encased in a papery husk (like tomatillos)

Easy to grow, prolific, and super sweet. When ripe the papery husk turns brown, the fruit turns a golden orange color and drops to the ground.

Groundcherries contain pectin and can be used in pie filling, and make a tasty jam, perfect for gift giving. An unusual and rewarding addition to fruit salads and smoothies. They are also great fresh, eaten out of hand as a "gardener's treat". Will store up to 3 months in the husk.

The strawberry groundcherry (physalis pruinosa) is native to Mexico, but has naturalized - and been cultivated - all over the world. This sweet and fruity variety, prized for its unique flavor, is said to originate in Poland (though another seed source ascribes it to the Pennsylvania Dutch)...

Ground cherries are easy to grow. Start indoors as you would tomatoes. Growing tips are the same. Direct sowing outdoors is not recommended. 65-70 days. I haven't grown these myself (yet!) but from what I've read, these are very productive, vigorous, sprawling plants.

These seeds are from a local heirloom seed company. The lucky winner will get at least 15 (teeny-tiny) seeds.

NOTE that there are tales out there to the effect that these are poisonous - not so!
While the leaves and the unripe fruit contain solanine (same thing that's in green potato skins -- it protects the plant from foraging critters because it tastes bad) -- the RIPE fruit is perfectly safe to eat either raw or cooked. And it's easy to tell when the fruit is ripe, because it falls to the ground (hence the name "ground" cherry)