It seems you have become fascinated by two very similar genera, Pysalis and Solanum. I can't say I blame you. I find them fascinating too. I have grown species of both genera, as have many gardeners, whether they realize it or not. Wild plants of these genera are interesting and useful too.

I'm no expert, far from it. So I suggest you search the web extensively and learn what you can about these plants. Wikipedia has incredibly long lists of species in each of these genera. That's a place to start. Perhaps you will become an expert and can explain it all to us.

Please post any interesting gardening and food related information you discover about these plants, starting with the ones you are growing.

Jim

We're two peas in a pod. I love growing interesting varieties every year. Last year's favorite was Gold Rush. It looks like squash with a brilliant yellow color but it's actually a mild zucchini. It was great raw with dip.

Ground cherries were the best thing I ever tried. They have a sweet tropical flavor. The husks will drop to the ground when ripe. They take a long season. I start mine indoors when I start tomatos and usually only about half of the fruit ripen before frost. I've tried bringing in unripe fruit or entire stalks but they haven't ripened indoors. They would be terrific in a dehydrator but mine never make it that far!

The Cape Gooseberry you mentioned is a larger ground cherry variety and not a gooseberry. You can use the same jam recipes you would use with any berry.

This year I'm trying Argentata Swiss Chard from Fedco. It doesn't have the bitterness from oxalic acid like the Bright Lights or Five Color Silverbeet chard. Delicious. Also trying Early Silver Line melon and parsley root.

Seedbeads

Ichabon eggplants. I never grew or ate them before. They're a long slender purple fruit and delicious mixed with regular eggplant in a low-fat parmigiana.

I'm trying solanum quitoense (naranjilla), they're starting to bloom. Artichoke Imperial Star is now forming artichokes, or do you call them heads or buds? I don't know. Also I'm trying bolivian sunroot, yacon for the first time this year.

Hi Ann,

I'm growing garden huckleberries this year, Solanum Melanocerasum, very closely related to your Chichiquelite, although from my reading not quite the same. However, there does seem to be some confusion regarding what's what with these species. Anyway, I've picked about 4 pints (so far) from 6 plants, and made a pie yesterday that was very tasty. I got my seed from Sandhill Preservation, and they have a recipe that involves boiling with baking soda, rinsing, and then boiling with lemon juice and water. I believe the garden huckleberries will also make a nice jam or syrup and would really shine as a topping or addition to cheesecake. By the way, I have eaten exactly two of my garden huckleberries raw. They have so little flavor when fresh picked mine are not worth eating that way. The birds here don't like them either.

I have eaten but never grew ground cherries. I found them too sweet for my tastes for fresh eating and I didn't care much for peeling the husk off. However, I have read that they make a nice jam. Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe for you.

Petro

I'm trying Jerusalem artichokes this year. Having read that they can become invasive I planted them between the blackberry bramble and a forsythia bush. Any tubers that I miss are welcome to duke it out with the other two bullies on the block. =)

Thanks all for the responses (and sorry it took so long for me to get back). At least you've given me a bit more to go with - other than the huckleberry I didn't know the genus/species of the others. Also nice to know that at least a few of you have grown some or these or similar fruits successfully. I hope I get enough fruit from them to do something. I only have two plants of each (and I also started indoors along with tomatoes), I was hoping to get enough to decide if I like them or not, then grow more in the future if they are yummy. Pies and jams then, sounds like the way to go.

I'm waiting impatiently for my serviceberry trees (also called June berries) to produce enough to make pies or jams also.

I'll check back when something is ripe enough to eat :)

Ann

Ann,

Did you get my e-mail?

Petro

Ann, in Canada serviceberries are usually called "Saskatoonberries," after the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I find that a hilarious name---quite a mouthful. But I do like the jam! ;-)

Good luck with your adventures. I've got lemon cucumbers this year---mild, sweet cukes the shape and colour of a lemon. Plants are HUGELY healthy, have topped the six-foot trellis I gave them, but so far only ONE fruit (though a perfect, delicious one!).

Zabby

Petro, I did and I sent you a reply. I'm sorry - I've been swamped at work and didn't get around to replying sooner.

Zabby, yes, I knew they are called Saskatoonberries in Canada, it took me forever to figure out if I was buying the plants I wanted as I had to determine that June berry, Saskatoon berry, and service berry were all the same thing! (BTW, our dogs are from Saskatoon - we went there to pick them up, so I"ve BEEN there!)

I planted lemon cucumbers also and unfortunately the cutworms seem to like them also. Out of four types of cukes, those are the only ones the cutworms ate. I planted more though, but they are far behind and are only now starting to flower.

Ann

I'm growing Imperial Star Artichokes, which will produce plenty the first year.

I had no idea how good fresh artichokes are. There is a size in there, about half way up to the size one buys in the super market, that is almost entirely edible.

Off of a dozen plants, I've picked a bushel of heads so far this year.

Ann, that's very funny that you have Saskatoonberries and Saskatoondogs! ;-)

David, mmm, I LOVE artichokes. We have such a short season here that I've never tried them, but I understand Imperial Star and some of the other new varieties can be treated as annuals if they're started indoors, so I'm tempted....

Z

I grew both the Baker Creek Chichiquelite Huckleberry and the Giant Cape Gooseberry for the first time this year.

Huckleberries ripened about July, and I baked them in a muffin recipe just like blueberries. There was a trick of dusting them in flour first which I think kept them from squishing or bleeding. Best muffins I ever made! Similar to blueberry muffins only better.

It's late October now (Colorado) and those huckleberries just keep flourishing, even though the wasps ate about 1/4 of them. They get sweeter as the temps drop.

The Giant Cape Gooseberries finally ripened so I could pick them today. Was delighted by their fresh tangy sweet flavor. I think I'll make them into a jam since I hear they have a lot of natural pectin. Yield was pretty low, so I am not sure if I will grow them again.

Grew both berries in a GardenPatch grow box and each required massive amounts of water. Needed to fill the reservoirs daily in the hot dry days of summer, which was more watering than I wanted to be doing ;-)

Overall, I've been really pleased by all the unique seeds I purchased from BC, so will keep trying new ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: Huckleberry Muffin Recipe