Whatchamacallit?

Usually when you move into a new place, any "surprises" you find tend to be unpleasant horrors such as mouse droppings, mutant bug carcasses, a leaky roof, broken window panes, or a water tap that doesn't work. Fortunately, the big surprise that came with the front lawn of my new house is the expansive growth of physalis, otherwise known as "Chinese lantern", "Japanese lantern", "ground cherry", "tomatillo", "cape gooseberry", "wild gooseberry" (btw, "gooseberry" by itself refers to a completely different plant), and so on.

I make myself sound like an authority on the subject, but the identification of the plant amongst my co-workers involved many debates and Googling/Wiki-ing. ("How many analysts does it take to identify a plant?")

While Wikipedia provided the answer, I didn't know about physalis' culinary value until a colleague told me how much she loved ground cherry pies. Intrigued by the concept, I agreed to harvest what I could over the weekend and bring the berries to her.

The ground cherry aficionado also requested some cuttings of the plant so that she could plant some of her own. I was happy to comply but it should be pointed out that I have a "black thumb" and can kill almost any plant simply by trying to care for it.

After some online research on how to nurture physalis cuttings in water, how to harvest the berries without damaging the plant, how harvesting was good for the plant because it stimulates the growth of more berries, I braced myself and stepped onto my front lawn.

Unripe ground cherries are toxic, so I was leery of plucking any greenish-yellow pods. A couple of slugs had burrowed their way into pods -- it didn't appear that they were eating the berries so perhaps they were using the pod for shelter. There were signs of other critters feasting on the berries, but not nearly as many as I would have anticipated.

The physalis pod in its prime is a gorgeous shade of orange. Yet even in a state of decay -- with its orange husk disintegrated, leaving only a dried web of brown membrane -- it is a lovely work of nature. If the expert approves of this harvest, I will see what I can do with it in the kitchen.