This is the first year I’ve had a bumper crop of physalis. I have frozen some for a batch of jam later on but thought I’d try drying them and…wow…are they good!
In March I started Schoenbrunn Goldenberry and Lucy’s Big Goldenberry seeds (from Farmacie Isolde). I also replanted physalis I had wintered over from last year. The wintered-over plants went into production about a month sooner and is the way to go in my cool maritime climate.
These varieties are the largest physalis I’ve grown. I had a huge crop failure last year due to an insect/worm eating every berry before ripe.My changes this year were to grow in slits of black weed cloth and hang yellow sticky cards on each cage. Don’t know whether these changes deterred the insect damage or that the insect cycle changed but no damage at all this year.
To dry golden berries you need to first blanch the berries in boiling water for 60 sec to remove the waxy coating and then submerge in cold water to split the skin. Any skins not cracked can be tipped with a knife. You can see how the skins have rippled after boiling.
I dried at 125F for about 20 hrs. Once dried the reduction in size is about 50%. You get fruit the size of dried cherries - but I think so much better because of their tropical tang. Will be digging up this year’s plants and starting more seeds for next year!
