Wednesday 3 June 2015

Growing Tomatillo Or Wild Cape Gooseberry Plant & Its Health Benefits

One morning while I was weeding and tidying up my garden, I found this nice looking weed in one of my flower pots. This plant must have sprouted from a seed brought by a bird. I was about to pull it out but on second thought I was thinking to myself that it might turned out to be an interesting plant.
I dug it out from where it was and planted it into an unoccupied pot. Wanting to satisfy my curiosity I watch it grow.
The plant started growing and branched out. I began to find this plant familiar. I remembered this plant from my childhood days. To confirm, I needed to see the fruits, i.e, if it has any. So I waited...
Then I started to notice small flower buds forming.

The flower is yellow and brownish on the inner side.

Then I saw the fruit and I immediately recognized this plant. It was the same plant that my girlfriends and I used to pluck the fruits and play 'masak-masak' (children's cooking game) with it.
This is the Tomatillo plant. It is related to the tomato family. Some of its other names are Wild Cape Gooseberry, Pymy Groundcherry, Native Gooseberry, Physalis Minima (or Letup Kelambu in Malay).
From my plant, the fruit with its papery skin is about 2.5 to 3 cm wide and 3.5 to 4 cm long. The papery skin is easily removed and the round fruit inside is slightly more than 1.5 cm diameter. It is slightly sweet and has many tiny seeds. It tastes a bit like cherry tomato.
These are some of the ripen fruits which have fallen to the ground.

The papery skin opened to reveal the fruits inside.

The fruits are cut to reveal the seeds.

Tomatillo is considered a useful plant or herb when the fruits are consumed and is considered a weed when the fruits are not used. The fruits are rich in vitamins and minerals and can be eaten raw or cooked. The fruits are usually used in salsas, stews and sauces for meat. The fruits are also used to make jam and marmalade.

Tomatillo is claimed to have medicinal value and traditionally used to treat diabetes and fever.
A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
(Proverbs 17:22, New International Version-NIV)

46 comments:

  1. Now I know its name. Seen this tomato plants before.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oppss!!!..a total stranger to this plant. The fruit looks cute & it does resemble a cherry tomato.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But not as tasty as cherry tomato, mostly for cooking.

      Delete
  3. Wow lucky you din pull it out :) what we think are weeds can turned out something good :p

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your garden id Perfet.and there are. A lot of flowers

    ReplyDelete
  5. My Mexican employees grow lots of tomatillos. Tom The Backroads Travellers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Mexican use these for their sauces, etc.

      Delete
  6. I've never seen this plant/weed. I hope I can see one in the many weeds we have here. Good day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It could be there among the weeds but you may not have recognize it. Have a good day too!

      Delete
  7. I have never come across this before, you certainly learn something new everyday here in blogland.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with you, I too have learnt many new things in blogland!

      Delete
  8. So wonderful:) kisses

    http://denimakeup95.blogspot.it/

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'd never heard of this before. Way cool that you let it grow and blossom. Way cool.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very interesting.

    I haven't seen tomatillo from the plant, but I have seen the fruits at the supermarket. I always hear about it in cooking shows.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Haven't seen it before, but so nice that it grows in your garden:)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Isn't interesting when suddenly you noticed a plant and what do you know, it's for real and can be used for things. Have a wonderful day Nancy. See ya.

    Cruisin Paul

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am glad that that It turned out to be a useful plant.

      Delete
  13. oh, how neat! glad you saved it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If I had pulled it out, I wouldn't get to see the fruits and know about this plant.

      Delete
  14. I see them in the store, but I haven't tried using them. Much better to grow your own, I guess!
    ~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remembered I tried the ones sold in the stores while I was on holiday in Spore and they are bigger and sweeter. The one from my garden I think is of different specie, they are smaller and not so sweet.

      Delete
  15. I always learn something new from your blog :) Great photos!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Beautiful and informative!

    ReplyDelete
  17. such beautiful garden you have. now i know what's that Tomatillo. i have always seen in the supermarket and it looks pretty cool and unique. didnt know is that hehe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Irvine, I have known this plant, tasted the fruits but only get to know the name of the plant recently.

      Delete
  18. I'm glad that you saved the plant. We can buy the seeds in seed catalogues but I never did try to grow them. They are also called ground cherries.
    Hugs,
    JB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Julia. I have tried growing seeds from seeds catalogues but not always successful.

      Delete
  19. I must learn from you for all these plants

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lay Hoon, you are most welcome to read from the posting of my plants.

      Delete
  20. I have bought Physalis to eat when I was in UK. I did not know that we could grow a variant of it here - so interesting. So did you just eat it like a raw ripe tomato?

    I wonder how did the plant get into your pot.Are you going to propagate and grow more of it?

    ReplyDelete
  21. I eat it like raw ripe tomato but they are not as sweet as bought ones. I don't know whether it will grow from the seeds but hope to try.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This can be planted here??? They're very expensive on the supermarket shelf.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This variety can be planted here. But this is not as sweet as those sold in the supermarket.

      Delete
  23. I just recently found the same plant in my garden bed, but the flowers are small and white with yellow in the middle.im been trying to figure out what it is, I hope it's a tomatillo!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It could be, let it grow bigger first. Have a great day!

      Delete

Your visits and encouraging comments are greatly appreciated. Please leave me your name and blog link for me to visit you. Thank you.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...