Ground-Cherry Pie

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You can forage (or grow) the fixin's for this almost forgotten treat from Grandmother's day:

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by Laura Boyle

When I serve ground-cherry pie to my guests, the very few people who have ever tasted the treat before usually react with remarks like, "Oh, I remember when my grandmother used to make this" . . . or, "My great-aunt baked these for special occasions!" However, most folks have never heard of—much less tasted—this delicious fruit . . . and that always astounds me, because groundcherries have been included in our family gardens for at least four generations!

GROWING WILD

As a matter of fact, it isn't even necessary to cultivate ground cherries, since they're commonly found in fields, along roadsides, and in open woods and waste-lands in every part of the United States except Alaska. (Not long ago I discovered a patch of the wild fruit on a grassy embankment just two blocks from my Minnesota home.)

These fast-growing species of the genus Physalis are also known as husk tomatoes, tomatilloes, strawberry tomatoes, bladder cherries, and poppers (the Chinese Lantern is a popular, nonedable ornamental variety), and they belong to the Solanaceae family, which includes tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, tobacco, and nightshade.

The plants, while widespread, are usually not very abundant in the wild, so to assure a big harvest, it's best to cultivate them from seed . . . which can be ordered from L.L. Olds Seed Company, Dept. TMEN, P.O. Box 7790, Madison, Wisconsin 53707 (50¢ per package, and the firm's catalog is free) or De Giorgi Company, Inc., Dept. TMEN, P.O. Box 413, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51502 (40¢ per package, and the catalog is 66¢) .

Expect this garden crop—which prefers medium-dry soil—to sprout early and grow rapidly. It quickly puts out yellow flowers with brown or purple centers, and will continue to bloom and bear until the first frost. Around July, the fruit (which develops in a husk) will begin to drop to the ground and—even though it's not fully ripe when it does so—you should gather the cherries as they fall, since they're favorites of many animals and birds.