Thanks to the influence of CITR I gamely planted ground cherries but am confused by the wide variance of green to gold.  Many of the early ones that fell off most have been too early as they are green and staying that way.  The more recent ones in the past few weeks are definitely looking gold.  I was saving them in the husk, in berry baskets on the counter, hoping to see them gold'up … some of those baskets have been there for over a month and are now shriveling into raisins.  Still green.  Hmmmm.

So, are the green ones a loss?  They taste like the gold ones, just more tart.  And does anyone have a tried 'n true recipe link for jam with this curious fruit?  I have mucho universal pectin and wondered if ground cherry behaved much like any other fruit as I could use the basic instructions for that fruit if possible.  Thank you!

Okay, I tracked down Sheryl-runningtrails post on ground cherries that indicated ripe is better tasting than green … the photo has a basket of unhusked ground cherries that look still slightly green to me much like mine at present.  The flavor of green vs yellow (ohmyyum!) is pretty close, the green is just a bit more zippy.  Can I use the green ones that are still not ripening after several weeks?… some sites describe the unripe green as near poisonous like the green on light-exposed potatoes (really??)  And wow, I cut one open and these berries spew seeds! … no wonder some folks view them as pernicious weeds when they reseed year after year!  I am so cleaning up the beds the 3 plants are in now ……

Now I just need to find a decent jam recipe … so hoping to do at least one small batch for the holidays.  I already have some family members asking "ground whut ??"  Hey, we're all native Californians and ground cherries are not native here!

Hey, Sheryl, thank you … the ground cherries are as yet in piles but I've decided to shuck the paper working backwards.  Newest to oldest and, yeah, I kept track!  Fruit is still falling off the plants as frost comes later here.  Figured I'll net at least one batch of ground cherry something for the holidays and disgard the greenest … maybe take the first-dropped, now naturally withered yellow cherries and finish drying them.

I like the turnover idea … and the jam, so brilliantly yellow.  Thank you again.

Just came across this thread.  Ground cherries are closely related to tomatillos as they're both from the same genus, Physalis.  I bet you could substitute full-size yet unripe ground cherries for tomatillos in many recipes just as you can sub green tomatoes for tomatillos…

Ripe ground cherries will keep on the counter a month or more after picking but I've never picked the green ones to ripen/use.  I mostly make pie with ground cherries but if we really have a glut I'll make some type of fruit spread, too. 

Here's a link to a pdf file, Jams and jellies from native (wild) fruits, put out by the NDSU Extension Service that gives three recipes for ground cherry spreads — jam, preserves and marmalade.  The jam and preserves call for ground cherries on their own (and are pretty much the same as the recipes I use) but the marmalade, as you might expect, calls for other fruits, too. 

James Beard's American cookery has a recipe for Poached ground cherries and a few years ago I found a new-to-me recipe for ground cherries in a bar cookie in Lind and Hockman-Wert's Simply in season, a cookbook in the spirit of the More-with-less cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre.  One of these days I'll get around to trying it…