Cape gooseberry

After having fun with an intriguing fruit as a child, JACKIE FRENCH has created the same magic for kids in her garden

We kids ate many things that grown-ups didn’t regard as ‘proper food’ when I was young: bunya nut clusters that the older boys climbed up the enormous tree to push down, which they would then bake in the ashes for us; native cherries; yabbies that lived in the bath until it was time to cook them; and, in shady spots, ‘magic lanterns’.

The magic lanterns were green and lantern-shaped, with small green berries inside. These were toxic and not to be eaten. But when the lanterns turned tan, and then lacy and almost transparent, the berries inside would be bright orange, and then could be eaten. They weren’t exactly delicious, but they were okay – sweet and a bit seedy. Mostly, they were free and fun. Every day we’d race out to see if any of the lanterns had begun to glow. Which is why I grow them now – so the kids can walk past the metre-sized bushes, see those green lanterns getting bigger and paler, and ask, “Can we pick them yet?” And be told, “In a few days’ time, if the weather stays hot.” And then there’s more magic when the kids open up their lantern and find the berry nestling inside.

GROW YOUR OWN LANTERNS

The ‘lanterns’ are cape gooseberries (Physalis peruviana), and you won’t find them in the supermarket. They are one of the best plants to grow in light shade and will even survive dry shade, though you won’t get as much fruit. Give them a moist, fertile spot and they’ll grow to about 1.5m.

Cape gooseberry grows in all but the most arid, freezing or tropical parts of Australia. In frosty spots, give the bushes shelter and a warm rock or wall to grow against. The fruit matures in about 80 days, but that can be more or less, depending on the weather. Seeds can be planted at any warm time of year, about 1.5m apart per bush, but they are perhaps best tucked into a bare spot where not much else grows. I also love them because the leaves are toxic and the wallabies can sense this, so leave them alone. Do not grow cape gooseberry in the chook house or donkey pen, in case the animals munch them and end up ill, or even dead.

Add a few cape gooseberries to a salad or fruit salad, or use them to decorate a fruit platter or cheese tray. They look extremely pretty and, as I said, taste… okay. They are, perhaps, best dried, like goji berries or raisins, or made into jam. They are extremely high in pectin, so the jam is almost foolproof, unless you cook it too long – then you’ll end up with gooseberry paste to eat with cheese. That truly is delicious.

The fruit has one major drawback: birds adore it, and seeds survive well in their digestive tracts, so they get excreted out. One bush can become 100 feral cape gooseberries in damp, shady bush gullies. Do not grow this plant near the bush, except in climates like mine, where major frosts kill all but the hardiest plants – and if you do grow it, cover fruiting plants with bird netting to keep feathered seed carriers at bay.

The lanterns are still all green as I write this. The kids will be impatient. But come the holidays, the lanterns should be turning golden. And they will be magic.

e magic lanterns were green and lantern-shaped, with small green berries inside. ese were toxic and not to be eaten. But when the lanterns turned tan, and then lacy and almost transparent, the berries inside would be bright orange, and then could be eaten.