Viewing post #1260527 by robynanne

TsFlowers said:I found this thread interesting. A few years back a person in the area here had indicated that she no longer saw any of the wild ground cherries growing that they had used to pick and eat as children. And then I saw Philip's post about the purple tomatillo. I had no idea that tomatillo was physalis family. And then I did a search here in the database to see all in the physalis family and was quite surprised.

http://garden.org/plants/brows...

Last year I purchased some tomatillos at the farmer's market. I never got them used, even though a salsa recipe was given to me with the purchase. The lady I purchased them from said she never has to plant them now, that they come up every year. So I just tossed them in my garden when they had become spoiled since I didn't get them used. I now find after seeing Philip's post that they are purple tomatillos. I don't remember them being purple though when I purchased them last year, but mine mostly look like Philip's photo but I've been too busy to mess with them. I know I tried them a few weeks back, but I thought they were awful and bitter. But at that time they were not purple so I guess they were not ripe since I had to peel them out of the husk.

(I hope these won't cross with my chinese lanterns.)

Yep, all part of the same family! I love plant family trees, it is so interesting to see how things are related. I searched out some tomatillos since I love ground cherries so much and I wasn't all that impressed - only because they aren't something you can just unwrap and eat raw. As I learn more about using tomatoes and turning them into jarred.. stuff.. maybe I'll try to tomatillos again. I've saved some of my ground cherry seeds from this year just in case, but I've heard they grow volunteers every year very easily. For that.. I think we'd have to miss a cherry on the ground and that is unlikely to happen around here. I'm definitely giving them more space next year and no tomato cage.