To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Groundcherry variation
Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2006 17:20:34 -0400
On Jul 8, 2006, at 9:16 AM, Jim Fruth wrote:
I try to grow about 100 plants.
How on earth are you harvesting 100 plants of ground cherries? I grew half a dozen last year and found them very time consuming to harvest and to sort; if we scooped up everything that was under the plants they all had to be checked over as some were no good, which took forever; and it was hard getting everything out from under the very sprawly plants. Anything we missed added to the bad ones next time. (The instructions I had said to wait till they fell off the plant as unripe ones were emetic.)
After all that, they were next to impossible to sell. I did get some people to try a pint, and they did say they liked them; but not as much as other fruit, so almost nobody wanted more than about a pint a year as a curiosity. (This was pretty much my reaction too, whether raw or in a pie.) I didn't grow any this year.
I will say that they were heavy bearers. Variety was Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry from Seedsavers.