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Cottage Gardens

Ground Cherries or Choke Cherries

midnightsmum (Z4, ON)

14 years ago

Does anyone have any experience with these fruits?? I grew a whack of ground cherries (I think). The bushes around the house are full of black choke cherries. What can I do with them??

I just finished a bunch of pickling this week - harvard beets, dill pickles, and bread & butter pickles. Before that, another whack of pickled beets, as well as my crock pickles. Tomorrow, I need to do peach jam, and to start my tomato sauce. Yeah, I need another challenge. Well, yeah - everyone enjoys my treats, and I enjoy sharing them.

So, who does what with faux cherries??

TIA, Nancy.

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Comments (5)

schoolhouse_gw
14 years ago
Didn't know a person could eat choke cherries. As for the ground cherries, they can be canned like sweet cherries. Last year I posted a photo of a quart jar of ground cherries that won the blue ribbon at the local county fair (no, not mine!).
plantmaven
14 years ago
I know nothing about them. But couldn't you use them for
pancake syrup, jam or fruit leather.

I found this also

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/898/

I had a native black cherry at the old house. I raised it from a bird planted sapling. I am sure the new owner's adult children chopped it down like they did to everything else.

Here is a link that might be useful: recipes
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lorna-organic
14 years ago
Nancy, you can make preserves, pies and cobblers with the ground cherries, and you can eat them out of hand. I grew them for the first time this year. I think the pineapple taste mine have is delightful.
solana
14 years ago
Can you give us a botanical/Latin name Nancy?

If you're talking about Physalis edulis, a small relative of the tomatillo family: I let them ripen on the vine until they're yellow. Most get eaten while I'm in the garden. I bury the ones the birds get to first in one place, mark it, and have seedlings for next year.

Surplus? Substitute for apples in any pie recipe, but I'm not sure about acid/pectin content when making jam.
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks guy. Another canning project!!! lol. I need more jars.

Nancy.

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