Did you ever see tiny, straw-colored objects like the plant called Japanese Lantern at a farmers market and think, “What the heck?” I have. But I would pass them by incuriously, assuming they weren’t edible. They are husk tomatoes.
Turns out my train buddy Kathy grows them. One day this week she surprised me with a little bag of them. She said, “You just squeeze the husk and pop the little tomato into your mouth.”
The taste was sublime. Very sweet. But unlike any tomato or anything else I’ve had before. John thought they looked like a snack his family ate in Egypt, but my daughter-in-law said that was not the same. My grandson liked the idea of popping the tomato out of the husk for me.
That reminded me of car trips when John and Suzanne were little and how my niece said she could always recognize our car because the back seat was full of peanut shells. Husking peanuts was a reliable car-trip occupation for years.
Read more about husk tomatoes (also called ground cherries) here. I’m going to a farmers market Sunday, and if I see any husk tomatoes, I’m going to buy them.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 