fruit finds

I made quite the little food discovery at the farmers' market yesterday. Have you ever heard of a ground cherry? The Arethusa farm stand had a few pints of small cherry tomato-like fruit in papery husks—the kind you would see on a tomatillo. I asked the man there if they were gooseberries and he said no, but some people call them gooseberries. They're actually called ground cherries and they're delightful. He let me try one and they were so delicious and unusual I just had to buy a pint. And then Emi and Kevin tried one and they just had to buy a pint too.

When you unwrap the husk, you find a small orange fruit that looks like a little berry. They are firm and when you bite in, the insides are juicy. The fruit is sweet and the flavor is a cross between a cherry tomato and pineapple. Each one is different, sometimes the berries even have a vanilla undertone. We had some in our salad last night and now I'm thinking they would make a wonderful topping for homemade ice cream. Plum ice cream...


I think I will try making ice cream using these plums that I also got from farmers' market yesterday—from the woman in Charlotte. I love Vermont in August...