THE STRAWBERRY OR WINTER CHERRY.
By Mrs. P. A. Halbert
I wish to recommend a valuable fruit called “strawberry or winter cherry,” “husk tomato,” and sometimes “ground cherry.” It is described in seed catalogs in connection with the tomato, but it is not like the tomato either in growth, form, or taste. Like the tomato, it is easily and quickly grown in one season, and is a fruit of which we can have bushels at trifling cost, and yet it is little known. Those who raise it prize it highly. It is enormously productive. The cherries are less than an inch in diameter, of a strawberry shape, a beautiful, bright yellow or purple color, of a delicate, sweet flavor, and inclosed in a husk, which is easily removed from the fruit. When ripe they drop to the ground. They begin to ripen early if started in time, and continue to ripen until killed by frosts. Last fall, after frosts came, I counted as many as six or seven hundred cherries yet on the vines, in all stages of development. One could gather a bushel of the fruit from ten good plants. It is well worth growing for canning purposes, both on account of its fine quality and its immense productiveness. The pretty, bright yellow fruits also make a handsome dessert dish, and they are excellent to eat raw. They are as pleasing to the eye as to the taste—both as a fresh fruit and also when cooked. It will keep nicely in the husk until January, when it may be put into cans, the sauce being as beautiful as the Crawford peach. In experimenting with the cherry we find that it combines nicely with stronger flavored fruits, such as the raspberry, grape, elderberry, or with the sour fruits, such as the plum, currant, gooseberry, etc. A quart of the cherries cooked with two quarts of raspberries make what appears to be three quarts of raspberries. [The above was printed in the Review and Herald last spring, and the seed offered free of charge to any one sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope.] From a letter by the daughter of Mrs. Halbert—with whom Mrs. H. lives—we take the following:— “We have a large quantity of seed again this year, and would like to send it to readers of the SIGNS. Over 1,200 readers of the Review sent to us for seed last spring, and letters have been coming ever since. It has made us much work, and we have been glad to do it, but our circumstances are such that it will hardly do for us to send seed free this spring. My mother and myself are both widows and penniless. She is about 78 years old, and is sick much of the time, and always very feeble. We have two young children to care for, and I have to work very hard to do all that is required. I do not feel able to take the time to send out seed free this spring, but I will be very glad to send seeds of the yellow and also of the purple variety to any one who will send ten cents and also a self-addressed, stamped envelope. The purple variety has a much larger fruit than the yellow, and some like it better for cooking purposes. “The plants of both kinds are easily grown. Treat just as you would tomatoes. Sow as early as possible in the house or hot-bed. Very early transplanting is good. When warm enough set in the open ground three feet apart. “I have some very valuable recipes that will save housekeepers much time, hard work, and money. I will send them free of charge to any reader of the SIGNS who will send ten cents for these two kinds of seed.” [Those who send for seed will not only get their worth in seeds, but will help these two worthy widows. Please do not forget the self-addressed envelope stamped. Address, Mrs. P. A. Halbert, Taylor, Cortland Co., New York.]