While we are on the subject, I have been reading about these things and what to do with them. I read that you need two or more plants for them to produce. I only have one plant of whatever it is. Could this be a hybrid, or an entirely different plant?

Larry

You obviously don't need two, Larry, because those are tomatillos at the perfect picking stage. The fruit should fill the husk before you pick it. I make a guacomole with avocado, roasted tomatillos, and roasted Poblano or other mildly warm chili peppers. It's not only good, but it doesn't turn dark as quickly in the fridge.

Thank you Dorothy. I was only joking with my DIL, I would really feel bad if it hurt them.

I hope Madge and I can learn more about different things that can be grown in a garden. We were raised on beans and potatoes, and that is about as far as we advanced.

Larry, I have been pulling plants that are covered with blooms because they came up all over my garden. I have probably taken out 20 plants and I still have more. Most are just blooming but one has a few fruit on it about the size of yours. I am just not found of the taste.

I didn't plant these, nor have I ever planted them in the 12 years I have lived in this house. Maybe I got 'gorilla bombed'.

After I thought about it, I seem to remember getting a few in the basket I sometimes get in winter from the co-op. I probably fed them to the chickens and they planted them for me. They probably planted their own chicken feed because they will probably get most of these as well.

Carol, you chickens must be survivalist. No telling what else they have stashed ready to plant when you get the ground ready.

I have no idea what tomatillos taste like, but I am game to try them.

I told Madge today that I did know if I as getting better at gardening, or if my taste buds were just dying, because the homegrown produce seemed to taste better than ever this year.

You are way ahead of me. I have only had snap peas, salad greens, asparagus, potatoes, onions and green beans so far. I worked on onions and grass today, and dang was it ever hot. I have cucumbers, pole beans, and squash with blooms, but none ready to eat yet. My tomatoes are taking their sweet time, and the peppers are now growing fast, blooming heavy and setting some small peppers. The peppers were tiny for so long, but that has changed. I planted much less of everything this year, especially peppers, so I'm not expecting much.

Larry,
I LOVE tomatillos. Your garden is well ahead of mine...I don't have any fruit yet, but have a lot of blossoms so hopefully I'll have a good tomatillo harvest.
As said above, they make a great salsa verde. I prefer to either roast or even just boil my tomatillos before I make them into salsa, but I know some people prefer them uncooked. Try them both ways before you make a final judgement about them. I'm including a link on a apple-tomatillo sauce that we've made for chicken before that was also tasty if you don't enjoy Mexican food.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomatillo green apple sauce

And a link to a salsa verde (I think I can only post one link per post)

Here is a link that might be useful: Basic salsa verde

And just one last one...this is a braised pork loin with tomatillos that we really enjoy. If you can't find epazote, you can leave it out...we have to drive to the Mexican market in OKC to get it...it will be on our grow list for next year (it was pretty easy to come by in Albuquerque stores). I promise I'll stop bombarding you with recipes now!

Here is a link that might be useful: Pork and tomatillo

Those look great! Last year the only thing we harvested a lot of (after moving house in high summer) was tomatillos... the plants got huge and took over the garden.

We picked 4 buckets full right before the first frost and roasted them all on the grill with some jalapenos and then blended it up. Froze the sauce and used it this year for enchiladas, also cooked some chicken in the slow cooker with it for taco fillings. De-husking four buckets full at one time was a very sticky job!

I hope you enjoy your delicious tomatillos!

I love salsa verde and chile verde. It makes me wonder why I didn't think plant any tomatillos in the spring. Well I'm making up for it now and I have some seedlings going right now to plant for fall. I still have to get a new bed dug up to plant it in.

What do you all think about the different varieties? The ones I started are called "Tomatillo Verde." I was especially curious about the purple ones.

They are on my grow list for next year. I tried to get them to germinate one year and they didn't at all. (rookie mistake I know now) but I am so looking forward to them.

Where can I get some epazote seed? I have never seen any?

Cynthiann,
I used to always get my transplants from a lady at the Santa Fe farmer's market and I don't know the variety. This year, we planted the purple tomatillos from seed. This was my husband's request...he seems to think we will be able to make jars of pretty purple salsa for gifts with these. I'm pretty sure that we will just end up with a weird gray salsa, but we will see. The purple ones are supposed to be sweeter...I will let you know.

I think you can get epazote seed at Johnny's Seed and Territorial Seed company. I haven't seen any locally (but I didn't really look when I was at K and K)