Cape gooseberry

Ripe: December-march, but can be all-year-round in a warm climate Varieties: just one, available as seeds from Kings Seeds

I have heard people ridicule the cape gooseberry and call it a weed, but it is my sort of plant. It pops up each spring by itself, doesn’t suffer from any pest or disease and produces little globes of flavour.

The fruit are about the size of a grape and come in a biodegradable packaging that looks like a cute little paper lantern.

They are in the same family as the tomato and are full of seeds too.

But the golden fruit have an intense, unique flavour and you can use them in every way, fresh to baked, sweet to savoury or even dried into raisins. Dare I mention it, they make an amazing jam.

The plant is a tumbling, unruly, thighhigh bush with soft pale-green leaves. In warmer climates it will fruit all year round but it is very frost tender.

Cold kills the plant but the plentiful fruit will still self-seed. Once you have it, it will pop up each year in bare, fertile ground (for me, it’s usually somewhere in my vegetable garden) and pretty much look after itself.

To ensure fruit ripens before the cold hits, I sometimes start seedlings in the glass house in early spring.

The fruit ripen in their own little lantern- like packaging