Like most farmers I build on my experience from year to year with the hopes that this year will be better than the last. So I tend to grow many of the same crops and varieties that performed well in previous years. It is comforting to know you have a crop that you are familiar with and for the most part you have an idea of what to expect throughout the growing and harvesting season. As you refine your crops and figure out what varieties grow well and taste great, you drop the ones that continued to have problems in the field or just didn’t taste great. Removing poor performing crops leaves space for something exciting and new.
This year my new addition to the farm is Aunt Molly’s ground cherry. A ground cherry grows similar to a tomatillo, a sprawling green plant that is covered in dangling paper husks. Once the paper husks drop off the plant you will find what looks like a golden-yellow cherry tomato inside, but this fruit is super sweet tasting like candy and often used to make jams or pies. I transplanted about a 100 ground cherries last weekend, so far the tiny plants seem to be growing well.
