Ground Cherries

The single best question you can ask a vendor at a market, a stockist at your local grocery store, or a server at a restaurant is “What are you most excited about?” This is how I learned about ground cherries. I had taken my standard cursory scan of the farmers’ market table, pausing briefly at the little lantern-encased fruits, but I didn’t know them. It wasn’t until I asked the young lady building the display the million-dollar question, “Hey, what are you most excited to eat this week?” She responded by setting down her lug of tomatoes and walking to the stack of ground cherries I had just breezed by. “OMG, have you had one of these yet?” In a single elegant movement, she slid the papery husk away from the golden, speckled fruit, twisting it free, and handed it to me. As an act of encouragement, she repeated the gesture, freeing a second fruit, and popped it into her own mouth.