Ground Cherries Preserves
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 7:12AM
Like with a dream, I have no idea how my relationship with ground cherries began. Last summer, I found myself scrounging around in my bag at the Union Square greenmarket in NYC for spare change, laundry money, as much as I could pull together to purchase these intriguing fruits.
;)
I ended up with 5 pints and a homework assignment to figure out what the heck these things are and why they’re so hard to pin down flavorwise. Ground cherries, also called cape gooseberries, belong to the same genus as tomatillos, the Physalis genus and they’re native to the Americas. Biting into one is an explosion in your mouth, the unlikely yet interesting flavor convergence of something like cantaloupe and blueberries.
;)
Husked!
;)
I once read somewhere that they’re traditionally dipped in chocolate, husks slicked back and served as dessert (maybe in Spain?). Then I found this fun blog with a post on just that, chocolate-dipped ground cherries.
I, of course, made preserves. It’s worth noting that I sealed my micro-batch for shelf-storage so I could enjoy a little jar at various points throughout the year. You do not need to seal this size batch, as a pint of jam or two half-pints will keep in the fridge for at least 3 months. The recipe is safe for a waterbath; quarter-pint jars processed for 5 minutes or half-pint jars processed for 10 minutes.
Ground Cherries Preserves
yield 4 quarter-pint jars
1. Place the following in a preserving pan (a heavy, bottomed, stainless steel or enameled cast iron pot) and place over med-low heat the following ingredients:
- 1lb 9oz husked ground cherries (which was 5 pints’ worth)
- 1 small lemon juiced (about 3 Tbs)
- 2 cups sugar
2. Remove pot from heat once all sugar granules are dissolved, pour into a bowl and place in fridge with a piece of parchment paper and a plate to cover top of bowl.
3. The next day, pour the mixture back into your preserving pan and bring to a boil. It will take about 8-12 minutes for your preserves to set, depending on the type of pan you use and possibly the sugar.
4. [optional] Mash some or all of the ground cherries with a potato masher to whatever consistency you prefer. I like to do this because it varies the consistency of the spread and pops out the seeds from about half of the berries.
5. Ladle hot preserves into hot jars and seal in waterbath (please refer to instructions for this in many of the other Canning & Home Food Preserving tagged posts) or ladle into one or two larger jars and place in the fridge; it will keep (if you don’t gobble it all up) anywhere between 3-6 months.
Variation and reduction: Italian Granny Ground Cherries Preserves
This year I only managed to snag 3 pints. The farmer even gave me a dollar off, which whas sweet because she didn’t have to, since they’d all sell anyway and a 3-for deal wasn’t helping her out at all. Anyhow, I wanted to experiment with flavors despite the fact that I ended up with roughly half of last year’s batch.
I made the recipe (halved all ingredients) as listed in steps 1-3 above, but just after mashing the fruit and determining a good set I tossed in a sprig of fresh thyme (from my garden!), removed the pot from heat and let it steep (covered) for 5 minutes. After which point I added 1/4 teaspoon of Meyer limoncello to the spread and was pleased with the subtlety and mingling of the Meyer and thyme.
I sealed my two quarter-pint jars, and proceeded to place them on the shelf where the only-opened-on-special-occasions jars go (which is not in the back yard).
;)
Dang, it feels good to name a signature batch of preserves again. [Missing last year’s Tigress Can Jam sorely!]
p.s. Italian Granny Ground Cherries Preserves are divine atop a spanish cheese and my recent food swap loot, gravlax!;)
Reader Comments (46)
Does anyone have a method of canning these little gems. I was thinking that they could be canned in a way similar to canning peaches? I made jam from them last year and it was fantastic. I may have even more on my hands this year and want to preserve them. I see some have mentioned freezing them. How do hold up after thawing?
Rob, I haven't personally frozen them, but my guess is that canning them similar to peaches or tomatoes would be a ton of work (removing the skins). Freezing them will retain the most original flavor, though you could try pickling them with a pickled blueberry or other berry recipe and see how that goes?
I certainly wouldn't go through the effort to skin them. I was thinking they could be done whole or cut in half. Then they could be cooked for some amount of time (5 to 10 minutes??) in either a light or medium syrup. Then can them in pint jars for 10-15 minutes in boiling water bath? I can't imagine it wouldn't work, but wanted to be safe and at least know someone had success doing this.
Rob, I'd err on the side of safety with this fruit since they're related to tomatillos and are lower in acidity. You'd definitely need lemon in your syrup and I wouldn't guess at a good processing time to reach 212 if you left them whole with skin on. Before doing anything with a fruit like this, I'd try cooking a small amount of them in the way you propose and seeing if you like the end product.
Thanks for the suggestions and concerns. I've got some time yet, so will continue to look around. I'll probably make a batch of jam again and see how many I get afterwards. Perhaps I will try to freeze some, as I do that with raspberries already.
Sounds good, Rob! Let me know if you find anything about canning them whole from elsewhere!
I planted ground cherries one year because I got a free seed packet with an order I placed. I'd never heard of them, let alone tried them. That was the year that I got hooked on ground cherries. :-) Every year since then, they've come up (volunteer) on their own and every year the crop gets larger and larger. But, boy do I love them. This year will be the first year I haven't eaten them while standing in my garden. Finally, I have enough to make jam.
These grow native in my garden here just outside San Antonio, get them twice a year, and we love their flavor. We start to pick the bigger ones when some of the covers dry, if the fruit inside feels big and solid. If we wait until the shell is truly papery, the fruit has already become too ripe. We're thinking marmalade would be tasty - do you have any recipe for that?
Try substituting 1/2 cup of Tang for 1/2 cup of sugar. The orange flavor is wonderful.
I've grown ground cherries in our garden, actually by volunteer! I never planted them or tomatillos and lucky me gots lots of both! I find the growing/ripening season quite long for ground cherries so I've taken to gathering the ripe ones and freezing them until I have enough to make a decent sized batch of jam. I also felt like the ground cherries could use a companion flavor and vanilla spoke to me, so I took vanilla beans, split them and put them into the jars before ladling the jam mixture into them. I love this combo! I often serve the ground cherry jam with crackers and goat cheese! Super yum!
My daughter in law turned us on to them, my husband ordered some seeds from a catalog and we have more ground cherries than we know what to do with. The 2 of us are the only ones who like them, but I can't let this harvest go to waste. So I googled for a recipe and came up with several. Including one for ground cherry & pineapple crumble to serve with ice cream. Sounds divine as well as yours. I plan to preserve them, using some of the ideas here. Thanks!
Mskay,
What luck! Enjoy that bounty and thanks for your note!
So...I have a small garden in the yard and was looking for something cool to grow as opposed to the usual's when I stumbled upon an article on ground cherries so I found some seeds after googling it and now I have a HUGE tree like plant that is producing about six a day (on the ground) But i have to fight off the squirrel to get them!..Glad I found this site cause I want to do something with them other than eat them before I get in the house. Can you tell me if they would be good with a hot pepper in the jam?..I was thinking sweet and spicy
Scott, I've never put them with a hot pepper, but the sweet and spicy combo is one of our favorites in this household! Try adding some dried chiles or chile powder to a single jar to see how it goes flavor-wise and then scale up if it's tasty. Don't add fresh chiles to any jam you plan to waterbath can and store at room temp since fresh peppers are low acid foods and will change the pH of the jar which could potentially allow botulism bacteria spores to bloom. You can add fresh chiles to any jam you make in small quantity and store in the fridge, or in larger batches of freezer style jam.
Ground cherries are not the same thing as cape gooseberries. They are two different plants. Actually, many of the physalis group of plants have ground cherry in their name, but the kind you have pictured here are not cape gooseberries. Cape gooseberries are also called golden berries. I'm growing both plants. Ground cherry plants grow low and sprawl, making many solid green little lanterns that dry to solid yellowish husks. Cape gooseberries have a more upright plant with slightly fuzzier, slightly more silver green leaves. The stems are less striped and the husks have purple stripes. The berries are a little more intense and less sweet than ground cherries. They both are wonderful, they just aren't the same thing.
Thanks Robyn for the clarification!
Ground cherry jam is wonderful. I have 5 plants and I get plenty for making jam. I have made 12 half pints as of now to date. I have another gallon pail full and ready to be made into jelly. They are tasty little treats. My grandkids love them.
So excited to stumble on this post! I grew ground cherries this year and apparently they LOVE the Pacific Northwest because I ended up with easily over 5lbs from one plant. Be warned: they will take over your garden if you don't give them tons of room!
I am new to ground cherries, Never even hearing about them, Found them in a calendar and was intrigued so I planted them..WOW.. What a harvest!!
I made my first jar and added cinnamon.... It was good but just a little bit went a long way.
Now I have enough for a large batch..or two small. I am gonna add a little more lemon to give it a nice tartness. I added them to my cherry tomatoes for salsa and that was INCREDIBLE!! I have turned about 15 to 20 people on to these little golden wonders and everyone has the same reaction...Most are buying seed to plant them as well..Thank you for your site cause I had no idea what to do with them other than eat them off the ground before the squirrels get them.
Thanks
Scott
Jillian, wow!! That's a lot of ground cherries!
Scott, so glad to hear you are having a good time with ground cherries. What a great idea to add them to your salsa. I'll have to try that.
Anyone who knows how to make seedless ground cherry jam.I mean making jam with no seeds at all at the end.Any means of easily removing the seeds bse they are so many